Looking back at 2019
Free-market think tanks are good idea factories, but no matter how great their ideas are, they are worth little if they’re never realized. That’s why the R Street Institute, like so many others, actively engages state legislatures.
Indeed, for years, R Street’s experts have been publishing policy papers on the need for reform in many areas, including property and casualty insurance, criminal justice, and occupational licensing. R Street has taken these issues to state legislators and are seeing the fruits of their labor.
This year alone, the R Street Institute successfully worked alongside their many allies to raise the age of adult criminal responsibility in Michigan; improve Michigan’s personal injury protection paradigm; ensure that Maryland will no longer detain children under the age of 12; reform Florida’s assignment of benefits system; eliminate licensing fees for those displaced by natural disasters in California; provide licensure portability for some California professions; prevent Georgia from suspending the licenses of those who fall behind on their students loans; and prohibit the shackling of Georgia inmates during childbirth.
This is only a small sampling of the State Government Affairs team’s work. In fact, R Street substantively engaged in dozens of states and are incredibly proud of R Street’s accomplishments. But R Street also owes a debt of gratitude to their many coalition partners, including SPN affiliates, who have helped R Street turn great ideas into reality. As 2019 draws to a close, R Street is thankful for their allies, and looks forward to what they can achieve together in 2020.