When president Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Keith E. Sonderling, descended upon the offices of the Institute of Library and Museum Services (IMLS) at 955 L’Enfant Plaza in Washington, D.C. on March 20, along with his security detail and representatives of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), they got a surprise. 

All 55 or so employees of the agency, which awarded some $266.7 million to recipients all over the country in 2024, showed up to work that day, staging an act of defiance against the people who were known to padlock other agencies on arrival. Trump had signed an Executive Order, Continuing the Reduction of the Federal Bureaucracy, directing severe cuts to IMLS, which provides resources to museums and libraries in all 50 states and territories, calling for it to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” within seven days, so an abrupt closure would have been no surprise.

“They pivoted quickly,” an employee told me at the time. After swearing in Sonderling as acting IMLS head, the employee said, “instead of laying everybody off immediately they left the building, because they didn’t want to create a scene with us there.”

But if that act won them a reprieve, it was a short one. 

Keith Sonderling was sworn in as acting head of the Institute of Museum and Library Services on Thursday. Photo: Rita Franca/Nur via Getty Images.

“Today the entire IMLS staff is being placed on administrative leave,” the employee said in a text message on Monday. “They also plan on canceling all 900 open awards to museums across the country. As of the end of March there were 891 open awards to museums with $180 million in federal funds (appropriated in prior fiscal years to support multiyear projects) matched with $185 million of non-federal cost share.”

A representative of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3403 sent a statement via email.

“Earlier today, the Institute of Museum and Library Services notified the entire staff that they are being placed on administrative leave immediately,” wrote the representative. “The notification followed a brief meeting between DOGE staff and IMLS leadership. Employees were required to turn in all government property prior to exiting the building, and email accounts are being disabled today. Museums and libraries will no longer be able to contact IMLS staff for updates about the funding they rely upon. 

“The 2025 grant application program had already been paused,” the statement continued. “The status of previously awarded grants is unclear. Without staff to administer the programs, it is likely that most grants will be terminated.”

The offices of the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The American Alliance of Museums posted a statement to its website, reading, in part: “Placing the entire staff on administrative leave raises questions as to whether the agency will be able to fulfill its legal obligations to disperse congressionally appropriated funding, leaving museums, libraries, and communities across the country at risk of losing vital resources.

“This move continues to undermine the will of the American people—96 percent of whom want to see federal funding for museums maintained or increased—and prevents American taxpayer dollars from reaching America’s communities. We are in communication with our coalition partners and other stakeholders to assess the sector’s legal options.”

UPDATE: Four days after DOGE initially arrived at IMLS’s offices, 19 members of the board wrote a letter to Sonderling, pointing out that some of the organization’s activities are required to continue by legal statute, and noting that “all current-year and multi-year grants, contracts and awards authorized by Congress,” including those under the Museum Services Activities, “are non-discretionary and must be honored.”

After receiving no reply, the 19 board members again wrote to Sonderling on April 3, requesting information about the decision to place IMLS staff on leave. The letter expresses dismay that despite their advisory role, board members learned about this decision in the press, not through internal communications and laments an “information vacuum in which speculation and uncertainty replace transparency and confidence.”

How, the letter asked, are grant programs and other essential functions being managed? It noted some reports indicating that some staff were returned to duty, and asks who those staffers are. The dismissal letter, it noted, claimed that placing employees on leave was necessary to “safeguard legitimate IMLS interests and systems.” What interests, the board members asked, might those be? Are DOGE employees overseeing grants and statutory programs?

That letter was sent just before 8 a.m. Just over four hours later, board member Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, executive director of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, posted to Instagram a letter from Trent Morse, deputy director, presidential personnel, informing her that “your position on the Institute of Museum and Library Services is terminated, effective immediately.”

“Like many, we (IMLS board members) got fired because we were doing good by the American people,” Ramirez-Montagut wrote. “Onwards!”

Established in 1996, IMLS brought together the Institute of Museum Services (founded in 1976) and the Library Programs Office (part of the Department of Education since 1956). Congress appropriated between $230 million and $457 million for the agency between fiscal years 2016 and 2024; $280 million was requested for fiscal year 2025. In a call to salvage the Institute, the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) pointed out that IMLS accounts for just 0.0046 percent of the overall federal budget.

This story was updated April 3, 3:15 E.T., to include the letters to Sonderling from the IMLS board and Ramírez-Montagut’s Instagram post.