Summary
The Trump administration abruptly cut funding to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which provides over $160 million annually to U.S. libraries. Elon Musk’s DOGE teams executed the cuts, immediately terminating dozens of state library grants.
Officials in California, Connecticut, and Washington were first notified, affecting programs that support rural and underserved communities.
Library leaders call the move “devastating.” Congressional Democrats and publishers condemned the decision, warning it could cause mass library closures.
It’s going to be a pretty dramatic change for anyone depending on services that are cut.
States don’t have unlimited money.
Neither does the federal government. Washington State has the seventh-highest per capita income in the US. The great bulk of poor states vote Republican, so any negative funding impact is most likely primarily whacking the people who are furiously insisting that Trump be in office.
Not to mention that this program is apparently aimed at rural areas, which also vote more Republican.