This installment of CAA Reacts included twenty-four attendees and pulled together research on how federal, state, and local funding shifts—and the removal of government information—are reshaping the archival landscape in 2025. At the federal level, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) face deep cuts and restructuring, with mid-stream project terminations, canceled programs, and staff reductions. The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has seen severe staff cuts and grant pauses, while the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) lost its Archivist in February 2025, prompting strong condemnation from the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Additional disruptions include the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) January grant freeze, executive orders restricting DEI, climate, and health-related content, and major cuts to EPA and public broadcasting funding.
In Illinois and Chicago, Illinois Humanities (IH) and the Illinois Arts Council Agency (IACA) continue regranting but face reduced federal passthrough funds. Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) remains comparatively stable, distributing ~$12M in cultural grants. Foundations like MacArthur, Mellon, and the Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation provide critical support, but Illinois’ ongoing fiscal issues and political targeting of equity initiatives remain risks.
A major development is the removal of government datasets and webpages following new executive orders and an OMB compliance memo. Agencies such as CDC, EPA, USDA, and NOAA unpublished or deleted climate, DEI, gender identity, and public health resources, including CDC HIV/AIDS guidance, EPA environmental justice indexes, and NOAA climate datasets. Archivists and researchers can still access much of this material through the End of Term Web Archive, Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, university-led rescue projects, the Data Rescue Project, and FOIA requests. Litigation has already forced partial restoration of some health and science pages, showing advocacy can work.
Strategic planning themes emphasize crisis preparation, diversifying funding, and partnerships, while centering staff and community well-being. Advocacy remains essential: tracking executive orders, supporting ALA’s “Show Up for Our Libraries,” and sharing local impact stories with legislators. Looking forward, archivists must contend with wealth inequality and the possibility of privatization of heritage, while also seizing the chance to build more resilient and community-centered archives.
Additionally, CAA has put together a new Resource List Related to Government Restriction of Information and Cultural Heritage Funding Cuts.
This is the first release of materials in CAA’s new online repository that informs, provides advocacy ideas or support for archivists working in these trying times. The list will soon find a permanent place on the CAA website. If you come across resources—reports, webinars, toolkits, whitepapers, websites, etc. that belong in this list, please share them with us by emailing info@chicagoarchivists.org with a subject line of All Call.