Penguin Random House Sends Letter to Congress Urging Opposition to H.R. 7661
Below please find a letter submitted to Congress today (April 13, 2026) by Penguin Random House in opposition to H.R. 7661. The letter raises concerns about the federal bill’s threats to intellectual freedom, the narrowing of classroom reading materials, and the broader impact on students’ ability to engage with diverse ideas.
On behalf of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, we write to express our strong opposition to H.R. 7661. This legislation poses a direct threat to intellectual freedom, a fundamental principle of the United States and central to our mission as a publisher to connect authors with readers and ensure that a wide range of voices, perspectives, and stories remain accessible to all.
Rather than allowing educators and librarians to select appropriate titles that reflect the maturity, reading ability, and interests of their students, H.R. 7661 offers subjective and often biased lists of “classics” assembled by Encyclopedia Britannica, and two reading lists published by a single curriculum provider, Compass Classroom, written by Thomas Purifoy, Jr. and Mary Pierson Purifoy. If a book is not a classic in the eyes of those three sources, it is deemed unworthy of consideration. Not only does this rule out classic titles such as The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald), Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck), and The Crucible (Arthur Miller) it also forbids consideration of any new works.
While framed as addressing explicit content, the bill’s ambiguous language and definitions extend beyond explicit material to include content related to identity and ideology, narrowing the range of stories and perspectives available to students of all identities and backgrounds. Reading fosters empathy, critical thinking, and civic understanding, and when access to books is limited, these benefits are diminished. Furthermore, being able to read, comprehend, and interpret philosophically complex and ambiguous writing such as Fitzgerald, Steinbeck and Miller mentioned above is crucial to honing independent thinking skills that are routinely called for on standard college admission exams.
H.R. 7661 would use federal education funding as leverage to restrict what books students can access in schools. Because these restrictions are tied to major federal funding streams such as Title I and Title IV, they impact not just classrooms but entire school programs, libraries, and community partnerships. By attaching vague and expansive restrictions to funding, this bill creates strong incentives for schools to remove or avoid a wide range of books and materials. In practice, educators and librarians will be forced to self-censor to protect their budgets, resulting in further marginalization of vulnerable communities.
Americans have long defended a simple principle: the government should not decide what we think, say, or read. Educators and librarians should be allowed to do their jobs and make decisions based on what is appropriate for their students—not on federal funding constraints. We urge you to oppose H.R. 7661.
Sincerely,
Skip Dye
SVP & Dir, Sales Operations & Library Sales, Penguin Random House