As Library of Congress crisis deepens, lawmakers tread carefully

Justin Papp, CQ-Roll Call on May 13, 2025

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WASHINGTON — A stalemate at the Library of Congress continued Tuesday with no easy resolution in sight, as lawmakers considered how far to wade in.

Citing “executive overreach,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said as far as he was concerned, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche was not currently in charge of the nation’s largest library, despite the president’s desire to install him as acting head.

“What cause did he have to fire Dr. Hayden?” the New York Democrat said at a press conference, when asked about Trump’s abrupt termination of longtime Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

“There’s no cause. It’s all made-up foolishness. And so we’re certainly going to look into that, and litigation will be evaluated strongly,” he added. “And hopefully some of my Republican colleagues will actually stand up, show a backbone as it relates to their own authority. Stop being punked by Donald Trump.”

Trump fired Hayden, the first African American and the first woman to lead the library, last Thursday. On Saturday, he axed Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter. And on Monday, the Department of Justice confirmed that Blanche and two other officials were named to temporarily fill library roles.

The executive branch takeover of a legislative branch agency is precedent-shattering, at the very least, Democrats contend. While the president appoints librarians of Congress with Senate confirmation, the copyright office head is appointed by the librarian, according to statute.

“It’s the Library of Congress, not the library of the executive branch,” Jeffries said. “The president probably violated the law.”

Republicans, meanwhile, were slow to publicly respond to Trump’s branch-spanning maneuvers. Some played coy on Tuesday.

“Oh dear. No I had not heard. When did that happen?” said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Library of Congress. “Did it really? I was out of pocket on Thursday. So it’s something I can’t comment about.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, through a spokesperson, did not respond to a request for comment on the situation at the library and has not publicly weighed in.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate leader and chair of Senate Rules and Administration, declined to comment Monday. And Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V., also a Senate Rules member, said she “had a good friendship with Dr. Hayden. I had a lot of respect for her.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday that his office had been talking to the White House, according to Politico, while Blanche was set to meet with Republican Senate Rules staffers.

Before his confirmation to the No. 2 spot at Justice and now his library nod, Blanche served as one of Trump’s personal attorneys, including on his hush-money case last year in Manhattan.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last week defended Hayden’s firing, citing “quite concerning things that she had done at the Library of Congress in pursuit of DEI.”

Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who sits on the House Administration Committee, said Tuesday, “All I know is that this is something the president felt was necessary to have done, to try to get politics out of the government, which sadly enough, we saw so much of the last four years.”

Jeffries on Tuesday expressed support for changing the process by which librarians of Congress are chosen to give lawmakers more power. That’s been floated by Rep. Joseph D. Morelle, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee. Morelle said he planned to introduce legislation that would make such a change for the top spot at the library, as well as for the director roles at the Government Accountability Office and the Government Publishing Office, two other legislative branch agencies that have presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed leaders.

Bipartisan legislation was signed into law last Congress that changed the way the architect of the Capitol is selected, shifting appointment authority away from the president and putting it in the hands of a congressional commission.

But with Trump’s recent moves at the library, the political contours of the debate around legislative branch appointees have shifted, and it remains unclear if Republicans would support such a measure.

Meanwhile, confusion continues to swirl over who is currently leading the library. As of Monday, long-serving library employee Robert Newlen, who stepped up after Hayden’s termination, was still addressing himself to staff as “acting librarian,” and Department of Justice officials had been turned away from the library.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, said there were conversations ongoing about providing the library with guidance, but said he had nothing further to add.

“It’s very disappointing and quite concerning,” said Heinrich about Trump’s actions. “Irrespective of whether he has the authority, it’s just one more example of how he abuses the authorities he does have.”

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(Jim Saksa contributed to this report.)

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