A federal agency that funds libraries and museums is fighting to survive President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the U.S. government — reductions that also could jeopardize dozens of Maryland cultural programs, from an initiative in Baltimore that provides blind college students with Braille textbooks to a program in Towson aimed at combating disinformation about the Holocaust.

On Monday, the 22-member board of the Institute of Museum and Library Services sent a letter to acting Director Keith Sonderling that pushes back on attempts to slash the agency, and reiterates what it describes as a legal requirement to fund programs and support diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that Trump’s administration has vowed to eliminate.

But a prominent taxpayers advocate said that not all programs funded by the institute are potentially good uses of taxpayer money.

“I know there are going to be people that support it because it sounds good,” said David Williams, president of the Washington-based Taxpayers Protection Alliance. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at these programs critically and find out where the waste, fraud and abuse is.”

Founded in 1996, the institute provides supplemental support for the nation’s museums and libraries — including in Maryland. A total of $6,126,844 in grants has been pledged to dozens of Free State libraries and museums for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

“All such statutory obligations may not be discontinued or delayed under an Executive Order or other executive action,” the board’s letter states, noting that the institute is obligated to “disburse funds to grantees, subject only to the availability of appropriations, not to executive discretion.”

Trump signed an executive order March 14 instructing seven independent federal agencies to eliminate any functions other than those they are legally required to provide. It’s part of his administration’s effort to shrink the federal government and to stop what he’s described as wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars. He campaigned on eliminating “hundreds of billions” of dollars in federal spending.

The agencies were ordered to submit a list of mandatory functions within a week.

Monday’s letter includes in those mandatory functions “all current-year and multi-year grants” funded by Congress, as well as an obligation to continue providing support for the National Museum of African American History, the National Museum of the American Latino, and Native American library services.

“Any failure to fulfill these legal obligations or to reduce staffing or program operations below the minimum required to meet statutory mandates would place the agency in noncompliance with Congressional intent,” the letter states.

But even if it succeeds in retaining its existing functions and disbursing this year’s funds, the institute’s long-term future could be imperiled. In September, institute officials will come before the Republican-controlled Congress seeking reauthorization of an agency that the Trump administration has sworn to shut down.

“It would be terrifying for libraries and museums nationwide and in Maryland to lose the level of network and support and resources and standards of excellence that IMLS represents,” said Chanel Compton Johnson, executive director of Annapolis’ Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. “The impacts would be felt generationally.”

Williams said some of the institute’s choices have been questionable, however. He pointed to its authorization of $60,500 in 2009 to pay for new exhibits and video equipment for an Ohio museum dedicated to exploring the history of parachutes.

“In the past, the IMLS has been a repository for earmarks and pork barrel projects,” Williams said. “If this institute is truly needed it has to be basically built up from scratch, with guard rails, and oversight for the spending.”

In the past five years, Maryland organizations have received $31,706,395 in institute grants.

The potential loss of millions of dollars in annual funding comes at an especially difficult time for Maryland, which is grappling with closing a projected $3 billion budget deficit. In addition, state officials have predicted that Maryland could lose as many as 28,000 federal jobs — and the tax revenue those jobs provide.

Although some of the $6.1 million pledged has already made it into the groups’ bank accounts, much of that money hasn’t been received.

For example, the Port Discovery Children’s Museum has received half of the two-year, $200,470 grant it was awarded from the institute to work with parents, day care providers and other caregivers to show them how to use playtime to help kids learn.

“The IMLS is famous across the country for providing money and resources for programs that help families thrive,” said Carter Arnot Polakoff, Port Discovery’s president and CEO. “Two years ago, they gave us money to buy tables and equipment that allowed us to welcome children with special needs inside Port Discovery.”

A bit more than two-thirds of Maryland’s funds went to its libraries, through a combination of four leadership grants and a $3.3 grant to the Maryland State Library Agency, which uses the money to pay for specific programs at the state’s 193 libraries. The remaining $1.95 million in institute funds has been promised to 10 museums statewide.

“Outside of the museum community, the IMLS may not be widely known,” said Jeannie Howe, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, which represents 300 groups and artists in the Baltimore area. “But the libraries and museums they fund serve people in local communities who depend upon both the access and factual integrity of each institution. They are centers of information, dialogue and resources that we just can’t do without.”

Here are some of the other Maryland programs that have been pledged institute funds this year:

The Walters Art Museum has been promised $249,961 to open its first permanent exhibit of Latin American art this spring. Museum officials said that galleries will open May 17 as scheduled, regardless of what happens to the institute grants.

Towson University is among five colleges nationwide that have been granted a combined $249,831 to develop a community-based education program aimed at combatting disinformation about the Holocaust. The money will develop a catalog of books that were seized by the Nazis from synagogues and private individuals during World War II, and that were intended to be used to help develop antisemitic propaganda. The catalog will be used to create a community-based Holocaust information program.

The Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum has been pledged $100,000 to repatriate the remains of 13 Black Marylanders. Many of these people were buried in unmarked graves dating back to the 1700s. The graves were later accidentally exhumed during construction projects.

Johnson said the project aims to identify the deceased men, women and children, trace any descendants, commission facial reconstructions of the dead, and coordinate reburial ceremonies.

“Pioneers such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass lived lives that have been well-documented,” Johnson said. “But the beauty of museums is that we can amplify the stories of people who are less well-known. We can help keep their memories alive.”

The Enoch Pratt Free Library has been promised $30,000 to develop textbooks for 52 college students with limited vision or no vision. Any college student in Maryland who has a documented difficulty reading printed materials “can apply for this program, which gets all of their class materials into machine-readable or Braille format,” said Tamar Sarnoff, director of public libraries for the Maryland State Library.

The Worcester County Library was pledged $5,000 to operate a program supporting brain health in a county with an unusually large aging population. The program included the screening of a documentary, sessions in estate planning and an oral history project at five branches.

“If you need to figure out how to stretch a dollar,” Sarnoff said, “just ask a librarian.”

Polakoff said she isn’t surprised that museum and library professionals interviewed for this article all expressed a determination to find a way to go forward with these programs even if they never receive a dollar of their promised federal grants.

“This isn’t the first time that museums and libraries have had to fight for survival,” she said.

“We are nothing if not nimble. We are all so mission-based, and we all believe so whole-heartedly in what we are doing that we will not let any setback deter us. It’s all about keeping our eyes on the prize.”

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