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Thank you to everyone who has already written and called your members of Congress since the alert went out last week. 45,000 letters and calls have gone through the AAM's letter writing system. Keep it up!
As you have likely heard, Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling was appointed as Acting Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) last Thursday, March 20 to carry out the executive order Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy at IMLS. AAM is closely following these developments and will update this webpage as they know more.
The National Museum and Library Services Board sent Acting Director Sonderling a welcome letter that lays out the agency's statutory mandates. The Board serves in an official advisory capacity to the Director of IMLS.
Actions You Can Take NOW:
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Call your House of Representatives member and ask them to sign onto the IMLS letter.
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Write AND call your members of Congress about what could be lost if IMLS is gutted.
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Write AND call your state-level elected officials and ask them to join in speaking up to members of Congress.
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Encourage your museum's Board, supporters, and members to write and call their members of Congress.
- Share your story with local media. Here are some examples of media stories and Op-Eds that have already been published:
- Trump administration seeks to starve libraries and museums of funding by shuttering this little-known agency
- Funding for Iowa museums, libraries in jeopardy following Trump executive order
- Holland Museum facing 'critical financial challenge' amid federal funding cuts
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Op-Ed: Opinion: The president is dismantling an important program for Alaska libraries and museums - and Alaskans. Please help save it.
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Invite Congress: Members of Congress will be in their home districts for two weeks in April 13-27, periodically home for extended weekends, and for all of August. Take the opportunity to invite your members of Congress to your museum, schedule a meeting with them in their district offices, or attend public forums that your members of Congress might be hosting.
- If you attended Museums Advocacy Day, contact staff members you met to let them know about the potential impacts of the executive order and, if it is a House member, to ask their bosses to sign onto the letter by Reps. Titus and Bonamici.
Your steadfast advocacy efforts make a big difference in building needed support for museums and museum professionals.
Looking for more advocacy tools and resources? Visit the Advocacy section of the AAM Resource Library today!
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