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Federal Executive Order 14148

Published February 4, 2025

Executive Order Summary

Executive Order 14148 “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions” was signed by President Trump on January 20, 2025. Essentially, EO14148 rescinds (revokes) executive orders signed by previous administrations. Included in that list is Executive Order 14084 “Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and Museum and Library Services”, signed by President Biden on September 30, 2022.

EO 14084 did three things:

  • 1) it set forth a policy that the arts and humanities were important to helping America progress;
  • 2) formed an advisory committee to the president under the Institute of Museum and Library Services (with a dissolution date of September 30, 2024); and
  • 3) required the executive departments and agencies to advise, coordinate with, and consider joint projects with the heads of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Impact on Libraries

Practically, the revocation of EO 14084 doesn’t have any immediate impact; in fact, it seems particularly innocuous to be included as a list of “Harmful Executive Orders and Actions”.
Why are we watching this? Many library watch groups are warning that this executive order was rescinded in order to pave the way for the defunding and dismantling of IMLS, as was proposed in President Trump’s first term. (Not sure how defunding IMLS affects you? Take a look at the Office of Commonwealth Libraries’ LibGuide on State & Federal Funding for Pennsylvania-specific information; EveryLibrary put together this list of nationally funded impacts.)

References:

Published in Federal 2025 Session and Legislation to Watch