WASHINGTON - Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01) opened today's Full Committee Hearing titled, "Oversight of the Library of Congress."

Chairman Steil's full opening statement as prepared for delivery: 

Today, the Committee on House Administration continues our legislative oversight by focusing on The Library of Congress.  
 
We thank Dr. Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, for joining us today to discuss the work the Library of Congress is doing.   
  
The Library of Congress is the third largest agency under the Committee on House Administration’s jurisdiction and falls under the legislative branch.  
 
In FY 2024, the Library of Congress’s budget was $852 million. 
   
The Library of Congress, which was first established in 1800, serves as the largest library not only in America, but the largest in the world.  
  
The Library of Congress is home to millions of books, films, newspapers and more.  
  
Nearly 2 million people visit the Library of Congress every year.  
  
These visitors range from tourists, to researchers, to world-renowned scholars who go to the Library of Congress to explore the wealth of knowledge held inside.   
  
Even more people access the Library of Congress’s resources online.  
  
Because of this, it is crucial that the Library of Congress is continuing its modernization efforts and working to welcome more visitors every year.  
  
The Library of Congress is also home to the Congressional Research Service, which has been a crucial, valued resource for Congress for over a century.  
  
The CRS works in a nonpartisan fashion to provide policy and legal analysis to committees and members in the House and Senate.  
  
Since 2019, the Library of Congress Office of the Inspector General has identified various areas for improvement in enterprise-wide project and budget management, cybersecurity, data storage and collections management that have taken up much of the Library of Congress’s energy.  
  
Additionally, The Library of Congress has been working to implement their Visitor Experience Master Plan.  
  
Since 2019, the Visitor Experience Master Plan’s budget has increased by $33.2 million, resulting primarily from inflation in recent years.  
  
Today, we’ll be taking a close look at the budget for the Visitor Experience Master Plan as well as focus on the initial scope set in 2019 compared to the current scope today.  
  
IT modernization is critical and it is key that the Library of Congress continues to work towards improving their IT systems.  
  
We’ll also be focusing on the oversight of the Library of Congress.  
  
This oversight includes the Library of Congress’s top management challenges as identified by the Office of the Inspector General, the Fiscal Year 24 – 28 strategic plan, preservation and digitization of collections, and the Congressional Research Service Director search.  
  
While progress has been made across the board at the Library of Congress, there is still more to do to make sure they are modernizing for what researchers and scholars need.  
  
I look forward to a robust discussion today to ensure we are working to advance the Library of Congress’s modernization efforts.  
 

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