Rebellion At The Library of Congress
Staff at the Library of Congress follow in the footsteps of the Institute of Peace to fight the potential loss of hefty salaries and/or autonomy by the GOP Trump administration
Ed. Note: Crazy ruling May 19, 2025, by semi-retired D.C. Judge Beryl Howell, a nominee of Dem. Barack Obama, holding that Pres. Trump could not replace the leaders of the U.S. Institute of Peace, an ‘independent agency’ that wastes $50 million taxpayer dollars a year in fancy parties and a futile quest for world peace.
It’s always the agencies you don’t expect.
There was no rebellion when GOP Pres. Donald J. Trump nominated Dan 'Razin' Caine to be Joint Chiefs Chairman, the nation's highest-ranking military officer and the principal military advisor to the president, defense secretary and National Security Council.
It was the U.S. Peace Institute, which supposedly advances peace around the world, and, now, the Library of Congress, which is considered to be the national library.
Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to serve as the acting librarian of Congress, replacing former CEO Carla Hayden (salary, $255,800+), a nominee of Democrat Pres. Barack Obama. Trump fired Hayden last week along with the head of the LOC’s U.S. Copyright Office.
Following Blanche’s appointment, he named two staff members to senior positions at the LOC. Paul Perkins was named acting director of the U.S. Copyright Office and Brian Nieves was named acting deputy librarian.
All positions are acting because they require U.S. Senate confirmation.
When Nieves and Perkins reported for work at 9 a.m. on Monday at the Library of Congress’ Washington, D.C., headquarters, they were blocked from their offices. LOC staff members called the U.S. Capitol Police and LOC general counsel, Meg Williams, to have the Trump appointees booted to the curb. And they were, reportedly escorted by Williams.
This appears to be the first time since 1897 that anyone has seriously questioned the right of the President to appoint a new Librarian of Congress who, in turn, can appoint staff to key positions.
The LOC itself published a federal budget report stating the Office of the Librarian oversees “implementation and management of the Library's mission” and provides “executive management” to the library’s Chief Operating Officer, including the U.S. Copyright Office, and chairs the Library’s Executive Committee.
Nevertheless, LOC staffers say its budget is controlled by congressional appropriations and oversight committees, such as the Joint Committee on the Library.
The LOC’s, which has 4,338 employees, requested a budget of $898 million for 2025, a five percent increase over 2024.
The Captain
It appears the captain of the LOC rebellion is Robert Newlen, a seemingly mild-mannered 42-year LOC veteran who elevated himself to the position of Acting Librarian after Trump fired Hayden. Prior to this, Newlen served as a deputy Librarian of Congress and interim director of the Congressional Research Service.
Politico reports that Newlen sent an email to library staff in which he disputed that his four-day reign as Acting Librarian was over, and “he gave no indication he planned to step aside.”
Newlen found a predictable champion in New York Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on House Administration, which has limited oversight over the library. Morelle is calling for an inspector general investigation into the White House’s efforts to potentially seize control of the institution.
Are librarians across the nation really raging over this?
Although this is barely a national story, the magazine Publisher’s Weekly reported Tuesday that Hayden’s ouster “was met with nationwide rage and disappointment from librarians.”
Wired reported, ominously, that “two men claiming to be newly appointed Trump administration officials… showed printed pieces of paper saying they’d been appointed to take over.” The men were Nieves and Perkins, and the printed pieces of paper refer to letters documenting their appointments.
It will be interesting if the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is assigned to examine the LOC’s books, as it did with the U.S. Peace Institute, the other organization that recently, unsuccessfully, rebelled against the Trump administration.
DOGE reports the U.S. Institute of Peace blew millions on private jets and lavish parties, paid $130,000 to an ex-Taliban fighter, and tried unsuccessfully to delete one terabyte of accounting records.
The U.S. Peace Institute
The bureaucrats at the U.S. Institute of Peace, which identifies as a non-profit, independent organization, did not go quietly.
Several Institute staffers, including acting-President George Moose, reportedly barricaded themselves in the building in March after DOGE representatives showed up to examine the Institute’s books. The staffers also reportedly locked offices, disabled elevators and turned off the internet to prevent an audit.
Four days later, senior staff were escorted out of the building by D.C. police.
With a budget of $55 million from Congress and more than 300 employees, the Institute claimed it was immune from cost-cutting by DOGE because it is an “independent” non-profit.
As noted above, the Institute of Peace did not pass DOGE’s audit with flying colors. The Institute was audited in the past by external independent auditing firms, with “oversight” by the Office of Inspector General.
In addition to the alleged financial misconduct cited above, DOGE claims it found the Institute funneled $13 million into a private endowment with “zero congressional oversight.” DOGE reportedly referred alleged evidence of financial misconduct to the U.S. Dept. of Justice and FBI for further action.
Former Institute of Peace staffers and ousted board members filed two unsuccessful lawsuits to block DOGE’s “takeover” of the institute.
A federal judge declined to block DOGE from seeing the Institute’s books, and the Institute has now terminated nearly all of is U.S. - based employees and its remaining overseas employees.
The U.S. Congress created the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1984 with the support of Pres. Reagan to work to prevent and end global conflicts. The mission of the Institute was to further American power and foreign policy. It’s not clear what the Institute actually accomplished in all the decades of its existence.
In any case, many taxpayers are grateful that DOGE is looking critically at the books of supposedly independent agencies that seem in the past to have operated on autopilot.
How awesome would it be if the standoff is actually an Icarus-like attempt to try and buy themselves a little more time so they can finally track down the *National Treasure* map?