Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.
Trump Names Todd Blanche Acting Librarian of Congress
Todd Blanche, the attorney who defended Donald Trump during his 2024 hush money trial and is currently serving as the Deputy Attorney General, will now add Acting Librarian of Congress to his duties. Blanche will replace Carla Hayden, whom the administration abruptly fired last week. Despite White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s claim that Hayden made inappropriate books available to children, the Librarian of Congress is not that kind of librarian. The LoC is primarily a management and policy-setting position and is responsible for providing research to the U.S. Congress and overseeing the U.S. Copyright Office. That’s the piece to pay attention to here: this is a job about research, documentation, preservation of records, and access to information. Hayden’s dismissal may feel singular and personal to book people, but it is of a piece with this administration’s ongoing destruction of institutions and disregard for the public’s right to access records. It may also be related to the administration’s response to an AI report that the US copyright office recently released; Shira Perlmutter, who led the office, was also fired.
And in case you’ve been hearing variations of “but he can’t do that!”: I’m sorry to tell you that he can. The Librarian of Congress is appointed by the President and must be confirmed by the Senate, but there is no defined process or requirement for removing someone from the role, which means it falls under the President’s broad power to remove executives as settled by Myers v. United States in 1926. In the wake of Hayden’s firing, some Democrats are now pushing for a change of rules that would shift the power to Congress.
Tribal Communities at Risk of Losing Libraries to DOGE Cuts
The hits keep coming. More than 100 libraries on tribal land across the US are at risk of closing as DOGE has terminated the congressionally appointed grants that make up the bulk of their budgets. The affected libraries learned of the mid-cycle cuts when they received a letter from Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, who is currently acting as the director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. The notice indicated that “your grant is unfortunately no longer consistent with the agency’s priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States” and “IMLS is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.” Lest there was any question that Project 2025 actually was the administration’s agenda, The Heritage Foundation, which published the document, has been calling for the closure of the IMLS for years.
Today In Books
Sign up to Today In Books to receive daily news and miscellany from the world of books.