Texas Public Policy Foundation


The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a conservative think tank based in Austin, Texas. The organization was founded in 1989 by James R. Leininger, who sought intellectual support for his education reform ideas, including public school vouchers. Projects of the organization include Right on Crime, which is focused on criminal justice reform, and Fueling Freedom, which seeks to "explain the forgotten moral case for fossil fuels" by rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change.
In 2015, TPPF had total revenue of $10.8 million. Donors to the organization include energy companies Chevron, ExxonMobil, and other fossil fuel interests. The stated mission of TPPF is "to promote and defend liberty, personal responsibility, and free enterprise in Texas and the nation by educating and affecting policymakers and the Texas public policy debate with academically sound research and outreach."
In 2018, TPPF opened an office in Washington, D.C.

History

TPPF was initially founded and funded in 1989 by James R. Leininger, a physician, businessman and conservative activist from San Antonio, Texas. Leininger is notable for school voucher and privatization activism. The organization's board of directors includes thirteen individuals. Originally based in San Antonio, the organization was relocated in 2003 to Austin, Texas to be near the state capitol. In February 2015, TPPF moved into a new $20-million building two blocks from the Texas Capitol.
From an accidentally released 2010 tax document, the Foundation received funding from Koch Industries as well as Geo Prison Group, a GEO Group company, whose website touts the company as a "complete electronic monitoring solutions provider."
In January 2018, the organization announced that it had opened a new office in Washington, D.C. At the time, TPPF had more than 75 employees based in Texas; it announced plans to increase its D.C.-based staff from 5 to as many as 15 employees in 2018 in order to expand the group's work in the areas of environmental and health care policy and criminal justice reform.
In February 2019, the organization hired former U.S. Representative John Hostettler, a Republican from Indiana, to lead its state-based policy efforts. The Texas Public Policy Foundation States Trust initiative promotes policy ideas aimed at increasing state's rights and decreasing the role of the federal government in areas including energy regulation, spending, and health care.

Organization and activities

TPPF is organized into nine issue-area centers and a litigation arm.
During the year, TPPF hosts monthly policy events covering a range of issues, and an annual conference. The 2015 policy orientation included Steve Forbes, Newt Gingrich, and Phil Gramm.
In 2013, TPPF published The Texas Model: Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America. TPPF also publishes a quarterly journal titled Veritas.
Current U.S. Senator Ted Cruz formerly headed TPPF's Center for Tenth Amendment Studies.
The organization sponsors the Right on Crime initiative, an effort to reduce crime, restore victims, and replace mass incarceration with more cost-effective and humane sentencing and criminal punishment.
In October 2017, the White House announced that President Donald Trump had selected Kathleen Hartnett White to serve as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality. White is a fellow at TPPF. A climate change denier, White has said that climate change does not exist and that United Nations findings on climate change are "not validated and politically corrupt."
She has argued that carbon dioxide levels are good for life on Earth, that carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, and that "fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery." In February 2018, the White House confirmed their intention to withdraw their nomination of Hartnett White as a senior advisor on environmental policy.
On July 28, 2020, Chief Economist Vance Ginn tweeted what Alex Samuels of the Texas Tribune defined as a "racist" analysis of the revised data regarding COVID-19 related deaths for the State of Texas. In this tweet, Vance Ginn appears to discount the impact on Latinx mortality rates and the elderly populations as a result of these revised amounts. Additionally, and what one could argue is at the crux of what contributes to the racist tone in this tweet, is the implication that the opening of schools could continue if we end universal mandates, protect the vulnerable and "check those from Mexico"; This is especially considered offensive in that it is coming from a Texas economist who should be well aware of the socioeconomic disparities that are present within Texas society which are known to contribute to a higher risk of COVID-19 related complications for minorities compared to their white counterparts.
While those who originated recently from Mexico and South America may be subject to the same effects due to these same socioeconomic factors being present in their region, it does not properly address or acknowledge the vulnerability that many Texas citizens face based on their ethnicity or racial composition during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.
Additionally, the tweet was accompanied by a GIF of Prince Harry and Queen Elizabeth, in which Harry mimed the dropping of a mic and the mouthing of the word "boom", which is typically used to signify the lack of response one would have to whatever point was just made. When faced with criticism over the aforementioned tone, Vance Ginn only apologized for the use of the GIF tweeting that “It’s been brought to my attention that the gif may have been perceived as insensitive. I apologize as that was not my intention,”.

Staff