We work extensively on both state and national policy, focusing on issues that other groups tend to neglect. Our specialty is in tackling issues that are complex, but don’t necessarily grab major headlines. These are the areas where we think we can have a real impact.
American Institutions Network
R Street’s American Institutions Network (AIN) focuses on the protection of democratic norms and American institutions by fostering discussions, partnerships and action. A collaborative discussion group, AIN aims to shift today’s policy discussions away from politically-charged headlines to focus on the underlying institutional and cultural shifts that are threatening America’s form of government. These are our points of focus:
Congress as the First Branch: Congress must provide a real check of power to the executive branch and assert its place as the “first branch”, ensuring that the executive operates within legal, ethical and statutory bounds. Congress must retain its ability to legislate through normal, established, and traditional legislative procedure and channels.
Professional, Honest Government Institutions: Government agencies must not be used to monitor, attack, or punish political opponents. Regulatory structures must be appropriate, unilateral, and long-term. Information that is being used to inform decision making must be reliable and accurate. Information provided by government officials should be honest and grounded in empirical fact.
An Independent Judiciary: America’s judicial branch must be respected as apolitical, including, but not limited to, rejecting outcome-based views of justice and politicization.
A Free Press: The press must be identified and seen as a viable check on political power rather than a political propaganda tool itself. It must be re-established as an institution of our republic.
Civil, Loyal Opposition: Political dialogue and debate are essential to America’s form of government. As such, mutual tolerance, the understanding that competing parties accept one another as legitimate, should be consistently practiced. Information that is released to the public and used in public discourse by our political leaders must be trusted as true and accurate. Additionally, forbearance, or the idea that election-winners exercise respectful and appropriate restraint when wielding power rather than treating politics as winner-take-all, is necessary for the continuation of national stability.
Civil Society, Education and Work
R Street’s program on Civil Society, Education and Work studies the building blocks of society and governing, including localism, federalism, social capital, tradition, philanthropy and mediating institutions. It produces research, analysis and commentary to inform policymakers’ work on a range of domestic policies. Our initiatives have a particular focus on schools and workforce training as essential contributors to America’s effort to form citizens, workers, and public leaders.
We are excited to announce the launch of an important new talent-development initiative, the “Foundations of Conservative Policymaking Fellowship.” This fellowship will bring together cohorts of highly successful mid-career professionals working in public service, primarily at the state and local levels. Twice over the course of a year, fellows will convene for four days to learn more about the principles of American conservatism and how they can be applied to contemporary policymaking. In recent years, our politics have become increasingly toxic, old coalitions are breaking apart, and long-held positions are being reconsidered. This fellowship will provide an opportunity for talented individuals committed to building careers in public service to better understand the beliefs that have animated American conservatism. This will both help them appreciate a particular set of fundamental principles of governing and enable them to help shape the debate about the future of conservatism.
To learn more about the fellows in the first cohort, click here. If you are interested in being considered for a future cohort, please contact Andy Smarick at asmarick@rstreet.org
Commercial Freedom
R Street’s Commercial Freedom program addresses government barriers that hurt businesses and people. Generally, we support market-oriented policy solutions that enhance free enterprise, consumer choice and public well-being. To this end, our team focuses primarily on occupational licensing, alcohol policy, shipping and postal policy, health care disintermediation and regulatory reform.
Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties
R Street’s Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties Policy program produces research and commentary on public policy related to all stages of the justice system: policing, pretrial policy, sentencing, incarceration, juvenile justice and reentry. We work across the ideological spectrum to provide policymakers with reforms that prioritize human dignity, public safety, due process, individual liberty and fiscal responsibility.
Energy
R Street’s Energy program seeks to advance a cleaner environment and a thriving economy through principles of market competition, limited government and well-founded science.
Finance and Trade
R Street’s finance and trade policy programs explore efficient and effective market-based approaches to public policy questions that involve financial services and free trade. Among its priorities are sound money, public fiscal crises, the expansion of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and placing government-sponsored enterprises on equal footing with other financial institutions.
Governance
R Street’s Governance Project aims to assess and improve the state of America’s national system of self-governance, with particular attention to Congress. It produces research papers and popular writing about our national legislature and our separation-of-powers system. The project also co-directs the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group and meets with congressional staff and members to discuss congressional and government reform issues.
Harm Reduction
R Street’s Harm-Reduction program aims for integrated harm reduction with tobacco, opioid and sexual behavior as central elements. We believe that “abstinence only” approaches to risky behaviors will not work on a population-wide basis. As such, we emphasize harm-reduction approaches that accept that harmful behavior may continue even as we seek to mitigate – if not eliminate – the harms involved.
Insurance
R Street’s insurance policy program explores efficient and effective market-based approaches to public policy questions that involve the transfer of risk. Among its priorities are risk-based insurance regulation, ending environmentally destructive taxpayer subsidies through the National Flood Insurance Program and the Federal Crop Insurance Corp. and exploring the benefits of mitigation through programs like the RESTORE Act and the Coastal Barrier Resources System.
National Security & Cybersecurity
The National Security and Cybersecurity department serves as the locus for R Street’s work on national security and cybersecurity. The department’s research subjects include: the international balance of powers, military strategy, cybersecurity threats to national, state, and private sector organizations, and other emerging threats.
For more information on our experts and their media experience, please visit our NSCS Speakers Bureau.
State Policy
We work extensively on both state and national policy, focusing on issues that other groups tend to neglect. Our specialty is in tackling issues that are complex, but don’t necessarily grab major headlines. These are the areas where we think we can have a real impact.
Technology & Innovation
R Street’s Technology and Innovation policy program conducts research and advocacy around the public policy frameworks that govern both established and emerging technologies. Our goal is to push back against laws and regulations that impede economic progress or individual liberty, and to advance policy solutions that allow technology to move at the speed of innovation.