The Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan agency within the legislative branch, issued a report on Monday finding that the Trump administration broke the law when it withheld funding to the nation’s libraries via the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

Following the President’s executive order on March 14 calling for the elimination of IMLS and six other agencies, the administration named Keith Sonderling—Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor—as acting interim director of IMLS; the agency then rescinded previously awarded grants, placed IMLS staff on administrative leave, and fired the National Museum and Library Services board. The effect of the order, according to the GAO report, was that “IMLS ceased performing agency functions and withheld from obligation and expenditure funds that Congress appropriated for such functions.”

GAO officials concluded that the halt in appropriated funding to libraries violated the Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (ICA). The ICA, according to the report, “…was enacted to ensure that legislation passed by Congress and signed by the President is faithfully executed.”

Shirley A. Jones, Managing Associate General Counsel at GAO, shared the following statement with LJ: “Today, GAO issued a legal decision finding that the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) violated the Impoundment Control Act (ICA) as it implemented an executive order directing it to reduce operations. This decision does not take a position on the policy goals of the program. Changes to these policies and priorities can be addressed through the legislative process with Congress and the Administration.”

According to reporting by the New York Times, the accountability office could file a lawsuit if the administration continues to refuse to release funds appropriated by Congress. But GAO’s comptroller general, Gene L. Dodaro, “has not signaled whether the office would take that rare step.”

For libraries, this decision is the latest in a series of legal challenges to the executive order. On June 6, Judge Richard Leon denied the plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction in ALA v. Sonderling, citing his belief that the case was brought to the wrong court jurisdiction. In a separate lawsuit, Rhode Island v. Trump, Judge John J. McConnell Jr. ruled favorably for plaintiffs, denying the defendants’ request for a stay pending appeal on his sweeping preliminary injunction delivered in May.