Budget Hearing – Architect of the Capitol and Library of Congress
House Subcommittee on Legislative Branch
2025-04-08
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Source: Congress.gov
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Transcript
I'd like to thank Ranking Member Espaillat, committee members, and our two main witnesses, the Architect of the Capitol, Mr. Thomas Austin, and the Librarian of the Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden, for being here today. Dr. Hayden is joined by Ms. Shira Perlmutter, the Register of Copyrights and the Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, and by Ms. Karen E. Don Fried, Director of the Congressional Research Service. Both of their testimonies have been submitted for the record, and members are welcome to address questions to either in addition to Dr. Hayden. The Architect of the Capitol's fiscal year 2026 request is $1.3 billion. In addition to the round-the-clock personnel requirements, the budget focuses on life, safety, physical security, and critical infrastructure needs. of the Capitol campus. Mr. Austin, I welcome you to your first appearance before this subcommittee. I also want to extend my congratulations and thanks to you and your employees for the incredible work that you have already accomplished at this Congress. From the 119th transition to the 60th inaugural ceremonies to the Office of the Architect of the Capitol has shown its dedication and professionalism in completing the enormous tasks required for these events. The Library of Congress fiscal year 2026 request is offsetting amounts, totals $901 million, a 5.8% increase from the enacted fiscal year 2025 CR. The budget would support the professionals and staff across the library, including the Congressional Research Service and the vast collection of books and other media. It would also support upgrades to the preservation storage, digital collections, and website modernization, data analytics capability, and digital accessibility. The library recently opened two new exhibits, including Collecting Memories, Treasures from the Library of Congress and Two Georges, Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution.
Good morning, Dr. Hayden, Mr. Austin and agency leadership. I echo the chairman's in welcoming you to discuss your agency budget and your request for fiscal year 2026. Dr. Hayden, thanks for the recent call. And of course, Mr. Austin, it's great to see you again, and I look forward to helping your goals and objectives as the new architect of the Capitol. Dr. Hayden and Mr. Austin, you and your teams are here today representing the Living Museums of Congress, which is the Capitol and, of course, the Library of Congress. They are living museums of Congress. They interact with our folks on a daily basis. Their collective histories are so important to us. As ranking member and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I am concerned about the future of your agencies. The ideas presented in the recent executive orders, such as restoring truth and sanity to American history, are disturbing. And I hope these ideas will not influence the future directives of the legislative branch. In fact, I will call them. rather than restoring truth and sanity to America, imposing lies and distorting the truth of America more so. And I hope that we can direct our efforts in the right direction. Because they pretend really to ignore, if not erase, the diverse history of our nation. And of course, America is built on these diverse histories collectively haven't been shaped by migrations from Europe, from, you know, from Ireland, from Italy, from a Jewish background, of Greek background, and now new voices that must be included in the history of our nation that cannot be ignored and certainly not erased.
And so we welcome you, and we hope that we can work together to have some level of sanity and equilibrium so that everybody's respected, that no one is pushed down. You don't need to push anybody down to go up. All ships can rise at the same time if we work together and we work with a clear view of where we need to go for the future. So thank you both for being here. I hope to have an honest and transparent discussion with you. And again, America is made up of many voices. It is reflected right here in this room.
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