A nonpartisan government watchdog said on Monday that President Donald Trump broke the law when he withheld funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal agency focused on funding for libraries and museums across the country.
Trump first targeted the institute in March through an executive order that also called for the elimination of funds to other government entities he deemed “unnecessary,” including the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Minority Business Development Agency and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, among others.
The Government Accountability Office, the independent congressional watchdog agency that oversees federal waste, fraud and abuse, ruled the withholding of funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services was illegal.