Right-wing think tanks get billion in backing new report finds

Church & State, Jun 1999

Conservative foundations and big business have funded right-wing think tanks to the tune of $1 billion in the 1990s, a new report says.

The study, "$1 Billion For Ideas: Conservative Think Tanks In The 1990s," issued recently by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy in Washington, D.C., examined the 20 largest right-wing think tanks according to budget size.

"Partial data from 1997 indicates that spending by center-right and far-right think tanks continues to grow rapidly, suggesting that the 1990s has been a period of continued institution-building by political conservatives," reads the report. "Overall spending by these institutions between 1990 and 2000 is likely to top $1 billion."

Many of the organizations on the top 20 list support religious school vouchers, "charitable choice" welfare schemes or other proposals that would violate church-state separation.

"A decade ago," observes the report, "market-based approaches to education reform were discussed only at the margins of mainstream political debate. Today, they are central to that debate, and conservative think tanks during the 1990s have played a key role in achieving this transformation of the education agenda....Much of this work has been devoted to making the case for vouchers, linking this issue with broader arguments about the superiority of market mechanisms over public institutions."

The best-funded right-wing group is the Heritage Foundation, with an annual budget of $28.7 million. Religious Right leader Paul Weyrich's Free Congress Research and Education Foundation is fifth with a budget of $11.5 million, and the Family Research Council is sixth with a budget of $10.2 million.

Also making the list were a number of smaller pro-voucher groups, such as the Reason Foundation, Empower America, the Cato Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Virtually all of these organizations receive funding from a small number of right-wing foundations, the report notes. These include foundations controlled by billionaire publisher Richard Mellon Scaife as well as the Bradley Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the Koch Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation and the J.M. Foundation.

The report also notes that corporate support of right-wing groups is becoming increasingly common. In 1996, for example, the pro-voucher Cato Institute received money from more than 100 corporations, including Exxon, Bell Atlantic, Microsoft, Phillip Morris, Citicorp, Netscape, R.J. Reynolds and General Motors.

"In terms of resources, there is every indication that the funding stream that currently supports the conservative policy infrastructure will continue to grow," concludes the report. The 42-page report was written by David Callahan, a fellow at the Century Foundation. Individual copies are $25. For information on ordering, contact the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy at 2001 S Street, N.W., Suite 620, Washington, D.C. 20009. Website: www.ncrp.org.