President Donald Trump’s effort to exert control over the Library of Congress by firing its leaders could give him an unprecedented amount of leverage over the legislative branch of government. Can Congress stay independent?
By firing former Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Trump is “trying to take control of Congress through its library,” said Rolling Stone. One of the library’s sub-agencies, the Congressional Research Service, offers “confidential legal advice” to House and Senate members. The CRS also has a “database that has all the questions that every member has asked for the last 50 years.” That endangers the independence of Congress, one expert said. “How can a member of Congress ask CRS for legal advice or other advice when the administration can get their hands on it — or they can direct the answer?”
The burgeoning fight over the Library of Congress is “really about the separation of powers,” said The Associated Press. Discussions between members of the legislative branch and the CRS have been considered so delicate they are “protected under the speech or debate clause of the Constitution,” which offers Congress protection from legal liability for official legislative acts. The clash between Trump and Congress over the agency is a “power struggle with potentially vast consequences.”
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Congress ‘standing up for itself’
Trump’s takeover bid is the “latest example of executive overreach into the realm of congressional power,” said the Project on Government Oversight. Congress relies on the CRS to be “confidential and nonpartisan.” The threat to that independence “hamstrings” the legislative branch’s ability to “understand and respond” to important issues. It also could “undermine congressional oversight of the executive branch.”
Congress is finally “standing up for itself a little,” Yuval Levin said at National Review. In “calmer times” it would be easier to solve the issue with legislation clarifying that the librarian of Congress is “appointable by Congress alone.” (That is already the case with the Congressional Budget Office.) These are not calmer times: The president has been committing “brazen abuses of the separation of powers” while the legislative branch has mostly stood by. If this controversy is what forces Congress to stand up for its own powers against Trump “then by all means let’s fight for the library.”
‘Needs to be a consultation’
Congress is “quietly resisting” Trump’s attempt to control the library, said The Washington Post. The president designated Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as acting librarian, but lawmakers say control of the library sits with the top career official, Robert R. Newlen. Congressional leaders “made it clear that there needs to be a consultation around this,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.). Democrats are urging more overt resistance. “It’s the Library of Congress,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), “not the library of the executive branch.”
