WASHINGTON - The Committee on House Administration held a Full Committee Hearing yesterday titled, "Oversight of the Library of Congress."

Witness: 

  • Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress

In case you missed it, here are the top takeaways:

1. Will the Visitor Experience Master Plan be completed on time?

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): In your remarks, you noted the work that's being done in particular on the visitor experience master plan - VEMP I think is the acronym. We're familiar with that, and also some of the challenges. VEMP began in 2019 with really good intentions to showcase the national treasures of the Library of Congress, and as you noted, there's a lot of national treasures of the Library of Congress. We came through in COVID, through inflation, rising construction costs, and some other challenges. When VEMP began, it was estimated to cost $60 million total, with $20 million coming from donors and $40 million paid from American taxpayers. Is that, is that accurate from 2019?

Dr. Hayden: Yes

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): And then as the costs have shifted, it's now set to cost $90 million, $70 million of which would be from taxpayers. Is that accurate?

Dr. Hayden: Yes.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): And so just want to discuss the timeline, some of the challenges and noted  with COVID and other things that have come up. Do you still anticipate them being completed by 2027?

Dr. Hayden: Definitely and we have been really anxious to be able to work with the new Architect of the Capitol to continue that progress that we've had. We're scheduled to make sure that we are able to make all of the deadlines and so it's something that we're concerned about, but we think that we continue on the progress.

Chairman Bryan Steil (WI-01): Do you think you have everything you need to be able to to execute on the timeline that you have in front of you? I know we now have a new Architect of the Capitol that's been in that position for a handful of weeks who's ramping up. Do you feel like you have what you need to be able to execute this?

Dr. Hayden: The Library has what it needs. The design elements have been worked out with the Architect of the Capitol. We're now in a phase that it really is part of the Architect of the Capitol's domain - preparing spaces for fabrication of cases that the Library is responsible for. So, that's the work that's going to be done now and, in fact, it's started.

Click the image or here to view Chairman Steil's Q&A.

2. Attempts by The Library of Congress to Shift Away from Congress

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (GA-11): In recent years, it seems that the library has moved away from its primary and preeminent mission to support Congress in the legislative process. Now, as the longest serving member of this committee, I've seen some changes in that over the years. In fact, several years ago we were having a hearing with the Library regarding the strategic plan and there was an effort then to change the mission statement to minimize the role of being the Library of Congress. Most recently, in many of the
Library of Congress's branding, which emphasizes "Library" in big, bold letters with "Congress" in much smaller letters beneath it. So there's been a concern of a shift away from being the Library of Congress. So the question is, is the Library still focused on its preeminent mission to serve Congress and to prioritize Congress among its customers? And if so, how are you carrying that out?

Dr. Carla Hayden: Well, thank you for that question because we remain, and it's in our name, the Library of Congress and by opening up more opportunities for the general public, Congress's constituents, to access some of the collections, we have not deviated from our primary mission to serve Congress. 

Click the image or here to view Congressman Loudermilk's Q&A.

3. Veterans History Project Update

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): I want to talk a little bit about the Veterans History Project. I'm blessed to have almost 1 out of 10 of my constituents as a veteran, and we've been very active in seeking out stories with so much of our military community. Camp Lejeune, New River Air Station, Cherry Point - we've had 3 very successful events, collected over 30 oral histories, 900 minutes of stories. I just wanted to know, you know, can you give an update or a progress report about this? We have so much, I think we're just touching the surface on this with so much more work to do.

Dr. Carla Hayden: We have approximately 117,000 collections and we've migrated the legacy database to a more modern form. We are really looking at having a more robust website and making it easier for veterans and their families to record and submit their oral histories and so that's a major initiative that we are working on. We want to do more with members of Congress in terms of the workshops. We have staff that will come into districts and do that.

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): So our district has 25% of them, essentially? 

Dr. Carla Hayden: Right, and there's certain engagements that we're very interested in - more recent veterans, and of course, the Vietnam era is one that's more difficult.

Dr. Greg Murphy (NC-03): If I may make one suggestion, I do think we need to decrease the bureaucracy of it a little bit. It's a little bit onerous. I actually tried to do it for my own family, and it made it much too hard. So, I do think we need to cut that probably in half. We need more stories. We don't necessarily 100% of the details. Thank you for doing that. We should have 5,000 stories at this point. 

Dr. Carla Hayden: We should.

Click the image or here to view Congressman Murphy's full Q&A.