Valadao Remarks at FY25 Budget Hearing For The the Library of Congress and the Architect of the Capitol (As Prepared)

Apr 15, 2024

Statements

The subject of today's hearing is the Fiscal Year 2025 request for the Library of Congress and the Architect of the Capitol.

I'd like to thank Ranking Member Espaillat, Committee Members, the Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden, and the Acting Architect Joe DiPietro for being here today.

The largest library in the world, the Library of Congress is the main research arm of the Congress.

The Library of Congress fiscal year 2025 budget request, with offsetting amounts, totals $898 million, a 5% increase from fiscal year 2024. The funding would support acquisition, preservation, programming, and technological development for the Library of Congress, as well as administer the nation's copyright laws. The funding would also provide authoritative, confidential, objective, nonpartisan and timely research and analysis to Congress, and circulate millions of copies of braille, audio, and large-print items to blind and print disabled patrons.

I understand that the Library just concluded its biggest Gershwin Prize for Popular Song to date, honoring the legendary songwriting duo of Elton John and Bernie Taupin and offer my congratulations to you and the Library's team for the program's great success.

The Architect of the Capitol is the steward of 18.4 million square feet of facilities, 570 acres of grounds, and thousands of works of art that the 30,000 occupants on the Capitol campus and five million annual visitors experience daily. The Architect of the Capitol's fiscal year 2025 request is $1.03 billion, an increase of 9%. This funding allows for daily operations and maintenance responsibilities, as well as critical security and life safety priorities, capital renewal projects, and deferred maintenance that support the Congress, the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, the United States Capitol Police, and numerous other AOC-managed facilities.

I also understand congratulations are in order to the Architect of the Capitol for recently being awarded the prestigious Associations of Government Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting for preparing an excellent fiscal year 2023 Performance and Accountability Report. Congratulations to you and the CFO Accounting Operations and Integrated Risk Management divisions.

I would like to thank our witnesses for being here. I now recognize the Ranking Member for his opening remarks.