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Shutdown fears almost canceled Grassley visit
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · March 27, 2024
Technically, the U.S. Senate missed the midnight deadline and the government partially “shut down” on March 23.
However, neither the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site nor the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum were open at 1:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday.
So when the White House issued a statement that President Biden would sign the bill in the morning, it added that all government operations should open for business, Museum Director Thomas Schwartz said.
He said the National Archives and Records Administration issued a “checklist” for closing down just in case.
“We were ready for any contingency,” Schwartz said. “This is the fourth time they’ve given us that guidance.”
On March 18, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office announced that he would tour the museum and then host a public question-and-answer session for Monday afternoon. However, his office said they may need to reschedule if a shutdown took place.
“Senator Grassley believes government shutdowns are counterproductive and often notes that the government cannot fulfill its duties as a service for the people if it shuts down,” Deputy Press Secretary Hanna Akey wrote to the Times. “He has called for Congress to move swiftly to pass the final six appropriations bills and fully fund the government.”
During his visit, he talked about the passage of the bill that keeps the museum and park and other similarly categorized agencies open through Sept. 30. The bills broke up spending packages into two groups of six.
“This is the first time since 2018 that there was a good-faith attempt to get the 12 separate appropriate bills (passed before the deadline),” he said, with Congress getting them out of committee in July. “Which is plenty of time to get them passed through the Senate.”
A handful got passed in September, but leadership held up votes on the rest until Saturday.
“Technically, the government shut down for 2 1/2 hours (Central Time) on Saturday morning, but as a practical matter, it wasn’t shut down,” Grassley said. “I like to say this to my constituents about shutting down the government. It costs money to shut down the government, it costs money to open the government up, and government is supposed to be a service for the American people and you can’t serve the people if you’re not functioning.”
He said it “even costs a lot of money” to plan for a shutdown, even if a shutdown does not happen.
Grassley looked around the room at the Hoover museum and park staff.
“That’s the first time I’ve tried that (statement) out on a person who was affected by it, but that’s what I’ve been saying because that’s what I assume,” the senator said.
Schwartz clarified by stating that the federal government pays for the museum’s 14 full-time staff but that part-time staff who work in the gift shop and admissions desk are paid from revenues brought in by selling gift items and entry fees.
“With a shutdown, that means we can’t generate the revenue to pay those people,” the director said.
He noted that coronavirus concerns closed the museum for nearly two years but, fortunately, the agency built up reserves.
The Hoover Presidential Foundation is running a $20 million Timeless Values | Modern Experience campaign fundraiser to renovate and build a 2,250-square-foot addition to the museum. That plan originally would have closed the museum in August, but that has been pushed back a few months.
During that 12- to 16-month closure, “people are going to have to live off the reserves that we have,” Schwartz said.
The Foundation also pays for exhibits and programming, not the federal government, he said.
“We have to be entrepreneurial. We don’t just live off of a government subsidy,” Schwartz said.
Foundation Executive Director of Development and Planned Giving Shelly Mott told Grassley said the group raised just over $15.1 million of that $20 million goal, giving it about $4.9 million to go.
Some $5 million came through Endow Iowa and other big donations brought in $500,000 to $1 million.
“We provide a genuine treasure to the state of Iowa. Although we would like to have all of our fundraising done by August, which is our 150th celebration of President Hoover’s life, we’re going to do a groundbreaking at that time and then we’ll continue to fundraise until we’ve gotten to the final amount,” Mott said.
She said the Foundation now plans to close the museum in February 2025 with a reopening date of perhaps May 2026.
Fundraising began in 2021.
“It’s a very, very shortened time frame for a $20 million campaign,” Mott said. “It’s going to be an exciting place for people of all ages. It’s going to be interactive and vibrant and we’ll be able to tell a story that many people haven’t heard before.”
The 2,250-square-foot addition to the front of the building will help handle large groups, like bus loads of children.
The extra space can also be used for events, she said.
Schwartz noted that the 170-acre Hoover Park is one of two national parks in Iowa and the museum is one of 13 presidential libraries run by NARA and one of 15 in the nation.
“So, it’s really unique,” the director said.
The museum will host Lou Henry Hoover’s 150th birthday celebration on Friday with free Girl Scout cookies and C0-SPAN will visit on Saturday to broadcast a conference on the First Lady called “Lou Henry Hoover: Pioneer. Humanitarian. Leader.”
In August, the Hoover family will visit West Branch to mark Hoover’s Hometown Days and the 31st president’s 150th birthday, in addition to the groundbreaking event.
“It’s kind of a way to celebrate their lives before we close for an extended amount of time,” Schwartz said. “When we reopen, we’ll have exhibits that better reflect the technology of today to bring in more diverse audiences.”
The director said the updated museum would highlight “parallel lives,” not just the Hoovers’ lives.
“She was an extraordinary person in her own right,” he said.
Schwartz said the Foundation and museum planned the expansion and renovation for some time and encountered a few “hiccups.”
“Any project this size will have its challenges,” he said. “But we’re excited. The last time we had a major renovation was more than 30 years ago, in 1992. So, it was time.”
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