Daily News Item 2026-04-15 11:47

PEN America has joined with one hundred organizations including the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and the Children’s Book Council, to bring a letter to Congress urging the rejection of House Resolution 7661 (H.R. 7661), a bill that would “in effect mandate book censorship in the nation’s public schools.” The bill would invoke the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to restrict funding to programming supporting books deemed to contain “sexually-oriented material” and material related to trans identity.  “H.R. 7661 threatens to suppress access to important books for students—a clear attempt to further erode the freedom to read in this country. That Congress would task itself with deciding what books belong in schools is absurd and yet another example of government overreach tormenting public schools and libraries,” said Kasey Meehan, the director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read initiative. “The bill’s focus on a limited number of ‘classic works’ and explicit anti-trans language also signals the continued desire to censor identities and stories of people of color and LGBTQ+ people and books that reflect the lived experiences of young people today.”