Robert R. Newlen, a former deputy librarian of Congress, will be the interim director of the Congressional Research Service, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced Friday.
Newlen, who was most recently executive director and director of strategic initiatives at the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation in Phoenix, will replace CRS Director Mary Mazanec, whose resignation was announced early this week amid criticism of leadership within the agency.
“Robert had a stellar 42-year career at the Library of Congress, holding leadership positions in CRS, the Law Library and as deputy librarian of Congress,” Hayden said. “We are confident that he will ably guide CRS and continue its mission to serve Congress and to advance its many ongoing initiatives, including IT modernization, while we undertake the search for a permanent director.”
Hayden announced Mazanec’s planned departure, effective June 30, in an internal email Tuesday. Mazanec, who was appointed in 2011, will become senior adviser to the librarian of Congress on a temporary basis and will be responsible for special projects with the library’s user community, according to the email sent to staff.
Reports of high turnover, low morale and lagging diversity have dogged the legislative support agency for years. Mazanec’s resignation comes in the wake of a contentious April hearing of the House Administration Subcommittee on Modernization and a May 3 letter from the union representing employees of CRS that laid out a series of concerns about leadership, among them low morale and rising attrition.
In fiscal 2022, 44 CRS employees left voluntarily, more than double the rate of voluntary separations between fiscal years 2009 and 2021, according to the union. The union says on its website that it represents more than 500 employees.
Modernization Subcommittee Chair Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., and ranking member Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., issued a statement Wednesday thanking the librarian of Congress for taking steps toward strengthening leadership.
“It is in everyone’s best interest to ensure that CRS is functioning effectively and meeting the challenges of a more modern Congress,” Bice and Kilmer said.
Newlen joined the Library of Congress in 1975 as a temporary clerk in CRS’ Inquiry Unit and retired in 2017 as deputy librarian of Congress, according to a statement from the Library of Congress. He held a multitude of leadership positions within CRS during his more than four-decade career.
He’s been active in the American Library Association and won the ALA Medal of Excellence in 2016 for “creative leadership of high order, particularly in library management.”
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