Last week, the Library of Congress made an important announcement: The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is getting a new director. Karen Donfried will begin her 10-year term on Sept. 23. She takes over for interim director Robert Newlen, who has led the agency since July 2023.

Little known off Capitol Hill, CRS is a hugely important agency. CRS analysts and reference librarians are an invaluable resource to legislators and staff who want to learn about legislative procedure, the ins and outs of budgeting, the history of various agencies and policies and facts and figures on just about anything.

CRS employees are an island of honesty in a town filled with partisans and special interests pushing their own narratives and “alternative facts.”

Congress heavily leans on CRS to inform the legislative debate. CRS staff provided Hill staff and legislators with 479 in-person briefings, 2,754 confidential memoranda, 22,212 telephone responses and 36,222 email responses, according to the agency’s 2022 report.

The agency also wrote 1,093 reports and general distribution products for Congress and 9,652 bill summaries, which the Hill and all of America........

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