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Issue: IMLS Office of Museum Services Funding

Issue

IMLS is the primary federal agency responsible for helping museums connect people to information and ideas. Its Office of Museum Services (OMS) awards grants to museums to support educating students, preserving and digitizing collections, and engaging communities. Grants are awarded in every state, but current funding has allowed the agency to fund only a small fraction of the highly-rated grant applications it receives. Congress has regularly reauthorized IMLS with broad bipartisan support, most recently in 2018 with a funding authorization of $38.6 million for OMS. OMS has set a strong record of congressional support during the appropriations submission process in each of the last seven years, with 178 Representatives and 41 Senators signing the FY 2020 appropriations letters on its behalf. IMLS received $242 million in FY 2019 appropriations, of which $34.7 million went to the Office of Museum Services.

  • We support funding of $42.7 million in FY 2020 for OMS, the amount approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 18, 2019 (H.R. 2740).

Download the PDF of the full IMLS Office of Museum Services Funding Issue Brief

Supporting Letters and Testimony

 

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