The R Street Institute is an American center-right think tank headquartered in Washington, DC. Its stated mission is to "engage in policy research and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government."Self-description on Why R Street? R Street was established in 2012, when its founders split from the Heartland Institute out of disagreement with Heartland's public denial of the scientific consensus on climate change.Graves, Lucia "Heartland Institute's Insurance Project To Depart After Controversial Billboard Campaign ", Huffington Post, 05/11/2012. R Street has branch offices across the United States.
History Formation On Thursday, May 3, 2012, the Heartland Institute launched a digital billboard ad campaign in the Chicago area featuring a photo of Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber," with the caption "I still believe in global warming, do you?"Climate wars heat up with pulled Unabomber billboards May 04, 2012 Heartland planned for the campaign to later feature cult leader Charles Manson, the Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro, and perhaps Osama bin Laden asking the same question. In a statement, Heartland justified the billboards by stating that "the most prominent advocates of global warming aren't scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen."Samenow, Jason, "Heartland Institute launches campaign linking terrorism, murder, and global warming belief", Washington Post, 05/04/2012. Facing public backlash to the billboards, Heartland canceled its campaign within 24 hours.
The leadership of Heartland's Washington-based Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, whose work had often been entwined with environmental policies, was quoted in the wake of the billboard campaign as noting that it had learned of the campaign only from an emailed press release and that it reflected poorly on the center.Lehmann, Evan "Heartland faces a mutiny amid furor over billboard campaign" , ClimateWire, 05/07/2012. On May 11, 2012, Heartland announced that the center would spin off into a separate organization, effective May 31.Graves, Lucia "Heartland Institute's Insurance Project To Depart After Controversial Billboard Campaign ", Huffington Post, 05/11/2012.
On May 14, 2012, Slate reported that the spin-off group would be dubbed the R Street Institute and quoted spokesman R.J. Lehmann as noting that unlike Heartland, R Street "will not promote climate change skepticism."Weigel, David "Climate Change Believers Split from Heartland Institute", Slate, 05/14/2012 Following R Street's break from Heartland, climate activist group Forecast the Facts estimated that roughly $1.3 million of Heartland's proposed $2.3 million in projected corporate funding had been withdrawn, as the donors Pfizer, Amgen, LKQ, Credit Union National Association, GlaxoSmithKline, Bayer, Verizon, the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, BB&T, PepsiCo, Farmers Insurance Group, Eli Lilly, USAA, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., RenaissanceRe, XL Group, Allied World Assurance Co., State Farm, Diageo, ABIR, and General Motors had either pulled their sponsorships or announced that they would not support Heartland in the future.Forecast the Facts, "Heartland's 2012 Funding: Fading Quickly"
CARES Act funding During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the group received assistance between $1 million and $2 million in federally backed small business loans from Sandy Spring Bank as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The nonprofit stated it would allow them to retain 61 jobs. The R Street Institute was one of several libertarian groups to receive assistance through the CARES Act. Its president stated that it supported the Act, as well as making all PPP loan applicants public: "Our position has never been that the government had no role in the economy...[this] is exactly the sort of situation where we do support government intervention."
Name The Institute describes the rationale behind its name:
Policy areas
The R Street Institute cites its major areas of operation as domestic policy challenges involving regulation, public health, environmental policy, entitlement reform, social security reform, criminal justice, cybersecurity, and the federal budget. The institute is known within the insurance community for its work on catastrophe insurance issues, including through its role as a member of the SmarterSafer.org coalition, a "diverse chorus of voices united in favor of environmentally responsible, fiscally sound approaches to natural catastrophe policy that promote public safety."Self-description on SmarterSafer.org In addition to R Street, SmarterSafer includes environmental organizations like American Rivers and the National Wildlife Federation; taxpayer groups like Taxpayers for Common Sense and the National Taxpayers Union; and insurance companies Allianz, Chubb Corp., Liberty Mutual, USAA, and Swiss Re.
The institute's flagship publication, initiated while it was still a part of Heartland, is an annual Insurance Regulation Report Card, a state-by-state study of the United States insurance regulatory system, examining which states are doing the best job of regulating insurance through limited, effective and efficient government. The 2012 report card measured states on 14 variables, including the concentration of home and auto insurance markets and the relative size of residual markets; the effectiveness of state solvency and fraud regulation; the transparency and politicization of insurance regulation; the tax and fee burden placed on insurance markets and the proportion of fees used to support insurance regulation; and the relative freedom granted to insurers to set risk-based rates, including through the use of credit and territorial information. Vermont was judged to have the best environment for insurance regulation, and Florida, the lone state to earn an F grade, was judged to have the worst.Lehmann, R.J., "2012 Insurance Regulation Report Card", R Street Institute, June 2012.
The institute has also worked on environmental projects, including co-sponsoring the annual Green Scissors report with Friends of the Earth and Taxpayers for Common Sense. The 2012 report recommended nearly $700 billion in cuts to wasteful and environmentally harmful federal spending. In 2016, Green Scissors released an online database identifying over $250 billion of what it characterized as wasteful federal subsidies that were directed to polluting industries, "including more than 70 spending programs and tax expenditures that could be cut from the federal budget simultaneously to save tax dollars and improve the environment." The institute has also published papers advocating linking the Federal Crop Insurance program to conservation compliance standardsLehrer, Eli, “Conservation Compliance: The Obscure Environmental Provision Key to Protecting Taxpayers and Privatizing Crop Insurance", R Street Institute, October 29, 2012. and withholding state insurance subsidies in coastal regions of Florida.Cámara, Christian “Coastal Preservation Through Citizens Reform", R Street Institute, January 16, 2013.
In addition to its insurance and environmental work, R Street has published research on member business lending by credit unions, tobacco harm reduction and tax reform. National security is a topic of the subject's interest mainly as cybersecurity and emerging threats policy research.R Street Institute website Retrieved 11 July 2021.Washington Journal. Host: Jesse J. Holland. (11 July 2021). "Tatyana Bolton Discusses U.S. Response to Ransomware Attacks". C-Span website Retrieved 11 July 2021.
Staff R Street's founding staff were all former employees for the Heartland Institute's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate, who resigned en masse following Heartland's Unabomber billboard campaign. They included President Eli Lehrer, Editor-in-Chief R.J. Lehmann, Southeast Region Director Christian Cámara and Midwest Region Director Alan Smith.
That group has since been joined by, among others, Distinguished Senior Fellow Mike Godwin, the originator of Godwin's law; Distinguished Senior Fellow Alex J. Pollock, former president and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago; Senior Fellow James Wallner, who previously was group vice president for research for The Heritage Foundation;,Self-description on R Street Staff James A. Baker, former FBI general counsel under James Comey, and Jillian Snider, professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and retired police officer.
Scholars and affiliates R Street also maintains a network of fellows associated with the institute. These include Derek Khanna of Fenwick & West, former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, Lars Powell of the University of Alabama, Brad Rodu of the University of Louisville, Vincent Smith of Montana State University, Douglas Besharov of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, and Andrew Hanson of Marquette University.Self-description on Policy Experts
A legislative advisory board, made up of state legislators from around the country, helps to advise R Street leadership on state-level legislative issues. Its members include Sen. Joel Anderson (R-CA); Sen. Kevin Bacon (R-OH); Rep. Jason Isaac (R-TX); Sen. William Payne (R-NM); and Rep. Kim Koppelman (R-ND).Self-description on Leadership
Board of directors The R Street Institute's board of directors includes: Marni Soupcoff, chairwoman of the board Ryan Alexander, Taxpayers for Common Sense Ryan Calo, University of Washington School of Law Pablo Carrillo, Squire Patton Boggs Michael Cohen, Renaissance Reinsurance Bob Inglis, Energy and Enterprise Initiative Bob Watkins, State Farm Insurance Elizabeth Frazeee Amanda Nguyen, Rise
References
External links R Street homepage Organizational Profile – National Center for Charitable Statistics (Urban Institute) Appearances on C-SPAN