Assistance program
Grants to States
$1.7 Billion committed in FY2018–FY2026
- Agency
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Institute of Museum and Library Services
- Assistance
- Formula Grants
- CFDA number
- 45.310
- What it does
- The Grants to States program supports efforts across the nation to provide access to information and educational resources in a variety of formats, in all types of libraries, for individuals of all ages. Supported initiatives and services address individuals’ needs for education, lifelong learning, workforce development, economic and business development, health information, critical thinking skills, and digital, financial, and other types of literacies.
- Who benefits
- State Library Administrative Agencies may distribute the funds through competitive subawards to, or cooperative agreements with, public, academic, research, school or special libraries or consortia. Through activities and projects funded, beneficiaries include the general public.
- Who applies
- The 59 established State Library Administrative Agencies may apply for Grants to States funds. A State Library Administrative Agency is the official agency of a State charged by law with the extension and development of public library services throughout the State.
- Authorized by
- Museum and Library Services Act (20 USC CHAPTER 72).
- Public Law 115-410
Committed by fiscal year
* FY2026 is year-to-date — the fiscal year is still in progress, so its total is still filling in. The striped band and dashed line mark that provisional stretch.
Top recipients
By dollars committed.
How to read these numbers
- Committed through this program
Money committed under this assistance listing (its CFDA program), counted in the year each action happened.
- How it's paid
Most programs pay out one way — a grant, or a direct payment to individuals; the flow bar only appears when a program genuinely mixes types.
- Some recipients aren't itemized
For entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, the government reports one aggregate instead of naming tens of millions of people, so the recipient roster isn't part of the public record.
- Awards, counted once
An award count is the number of distinct awards with at least one action that year — each counted once, however many times it was amended.
- The colored bars
Every bar on this page splits by how the money moves:
Direct payments