Great News for Library Funding! But There's So Much More To Do...

We are excited to announce that thanks to the tens of thousands of Americans who signed the petitions against Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to federal funding for libraries, the $1.2 trillion FY2018 budget bill (H.R. 3354) passed by 211-198 margin.

However, the battle for the budget is not over. Once the Senate has acted, the reconciliation process begins with the House, and we may once again need to ask for the support of people like you and your friends and family in order to push back against possible proposed cuts in the future.

That potential future fight is exactly why we are working so hard to find one million Americans who love libraries on our Facebook Page. If we can find one million Americans who love libraries, not only will we be able to send a clear message to our nation’s leaders that Americans love their libraries, but we’ll also be able to reach millions of Americans whenever there is any threat to library funding across the country.

Help us get ready for the next fight for library funding by taking a few minutes to invite your friends to like our Facebook page. After you invite your friends, let us know on this page and we'll send you some great vote libraries art in the mail!

The great news is that this budget bill also includes full funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), including all programs administered under the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), as well as the Department of Education’s Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) program.

The House vote caps an intense lobbying effort, and comes after President Trump in May doubled down on his call to eliminate the IMLS and virtually all federal funding for libraries, as well as a host of other vital programs and agencies, including the NEH and the NEA. And, it comes after Congress, earlier in May, passed a belated 2017 budget that actually upped the IMLS, NEH, and NEA budgets.

Patrick "PC" Sweeney
Political Director

PS - If you haven’t yet seen the video, Kyle Cassidy (Author of “This is What a Librarian Looks Like”) and Amanda Palmer recently sent us this video in support of our campaign to find one million Americans for libraries and Neil Gaiman posted it on his twitter account