Annual Report

Dear friend of freedom,

What a difference one year makes. One year ago —

The other side was riding high and flush with victory.
The Biden Administration was promising a quick end to the pandemic. The media elites were predicting a new era of peace and prosperity.
The economic wise men were not mentioning inflation at all.
The Silicon Valley elites were sure Big Tech would reign unchallenged. The political class was confident the America First movement was done.

And, of course, the America First Policy Institute did not yet exist.

But just less than one year ago, AFPI was created. Our extraordinary team includes people who helped foster a renaissance of American prosperity, manage a resurgence of peace abroad, and expand the American Dream to even the most forgotten communities. As AFPI began, our team came to an important realization. We realized that with our mission still unfulfilled, with America still in need, and with a dangerous world still at our doorstep, we had a duty to come together — and continue the work.

Our mission was resumed not a moment too soon. Although the Biden Administration was handed a nation returning to prosperity and blessed with peace, it quickly squandered it all. In just over a year, its record includes defeat in Afghanistan, war in Europe, a mismanaged pandemic, historic inflation, collusion with technology companies, and the quiet suppression of American speech and information. Perhaps worst of all, we have a federal administration that is hellbent on apologizing for the very principles that made America great, while imposing its elitist, politically correct worldview on the American people.

America needs a better way. American citizens need a better way.

The good news is that AFPI is ready to fight for American values and build the bright American tomorrow, now.

Every vote of confidence in the future, whether it is starting a family, beginning school, or forming a liberty-oriented policy institute, is a positive step toward the creation of that future. AFPI was not formed as a rearguard action nor as a parting shot in the wake of defeat. We exist because we have full confidence that our country’s best days are ahead, that the fight to save it is the noblest fight there is, and that we will win.

After two and a half centuries, the greatness and genius of the American people still retain their power to astonish, amaze, and inspire. All that our Nation’s incredible citizens require are policies worthy of them. At AFPI, our mission is to make it so. We will secure the permanence of the America First movement by providing it with the best research, policy development, marketing, communications, and grassroots development our Nation has ever seen.

Please review the first-ever AFPI Annual Report. In its pages, you will see a summary of our good work. But look a bit harder, and you will see more than that. You see, this report is not just a remembrance of yesterday or a recitation of the present challenges facing our Nation. It is the foundation for tomorrow.

For America —

Every day, the men and women of AFPI work to change America for the better. We laid the foundation for the Conservative Movement’s next century in centering policy and governance on their only proper object: the American people. We are out there crafting policy, counseling policymakers, amplifying activists, battling the media, and doing absolutely everything we can to build an America where Americans come first. Of course, it is in the name—and it is in our actions.

Our agenda is the American people and American principles. Without exception and without apology. We embrace American exceptionalism and reject political correctness.

Our work is a promise for tomorrow. That means we do not stay in rigid lanes. Our principles are timeless, but the strategies to save America are innovative and citizen-inspired. We adapt to changing circumstances and take advantage of new opportunities. America First policies are broken down into five thematic pillars and subdivided into 21 specific policy centers that drive our mission.

Our agenda is the American people.

In 2021, we made incredible progress in advancing policies at every level of government that put the American people first. We have reached millions of Americans. For the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), this is just the beginning. We are likely the fastest-growing conservative think tank ever—and we came out of the gate punching well above our weight.

Our overarching goal is to build the home of the America First movement and to ensure its permanence and impact for decades to come. It is challenging to sustain and grow a national movement that has the broad buy-in of hardworking Americans—but that is our most important task at hand.

We inspired and welcomed more than 20,000 donors who are passionate about advancing the America First agenda.

We held the line against the radical Left’s Freedom to Cheat Act and led efforts in 15 states to make it easy to vote—but hard to cheat.

We hosted the inaugural America First Leaders Summit with mayors, county commissioners, and sheriffs from across the country who are actively promoting the America First agenda in their communities.

We secured nearly 1,000 media mentions that demonstrated robust interest in the AFPI brand.

We launched a school board effort on patriotic education to drive transparency on curricula and accountability with local school leaders

We launched our sister c4 organization, America First Works, to advance policy at all levels of government and engage the American people in their government.

We placed more than 125 opinion pieces by members of AFPI’s team in major publications nationwide to lead the way on thought leadership.

We built a home for the America First Movement and hired 109 talented full-time and part-time staff members.

We created the AFPI Ambassador Program with more than 25 ambassadors nationally to help amplify America First messages to win hearts and minds.

We launched the Save America Coalition, in partnership with more than 65 conservative organizations, to educate Americans about the $4 trillion Big Government Socialism Bill pushed by President Biden and liberals.

We built a litigation presence across the Nation, which includes efforts to protect American workers and businesses from President Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate from OSHA.

We held 25 engagement events to take America First policies directly into key communities.

We published 90 policy papers that support policymakers at every level of government.

We supported one of the most important lawsuits in our country’s history against Big Tech, which led to the collection of nearly 100,000 tech censorship stories from the American people and started the process to hold Big Tech accountable.

We launched the Athletes for America Coalition with more than 10 well-known athletes already on board to engage and educate their fellow citizens on the America First agenda.

The Center for American Prosperity

6 data-driven research papers

2 policy fact sheets

9 high-level policy commentaries

50+ opinion pieces published in key media

10 press releases

The Center for 1776

19 data-driven research papers

8 policy fact sheets

4 high-level policy commentaries

1 piece of model legislation

15 opinion pieces published in key media

2 press releases

1 creative digital video

90+ digital posts reaching hundreds of thousands of people

The Center for a Healthy America

5 data-driven research papers

3 in-depth policy analyses on the Build Back Better Act

2 high-level policy commentaries

8 opinion pieces published in key media

2 press releases
2 media profiles covering the Center’s work
1 creative digital video

1 livestream panel with four segments and prominent guests reaching thousands

The Center for American Freedom

5 data-driven research papers

11 opinion pieces in key media and high-level policy commentaries

2 projects influencing federal rulemaking with informed research

The Center for Education Opportunity

15 data-driven research papers on K-12 Education, Community College, and Higher Education

15 stakeholder convenings hosted across the United States

3 opinion pieces in key media

10 media interviews

1 school choice video highlighting successful policies in various states

The Center for American Values

1 high-level policy commentary

2 in-depth policy analyses

2 opinion pieces in key media

The Center for American Security

7 data-driven research papers on topics ranging from China, COVID-19, Iran, to Terrorism and Defense Policy

5 press releases or videos on news of the day

3 high-level policy commentaries

14 opinion pieces in key media

200+ media interviews
3 media profiles of different

Center products
2 livestream panels

1 book

The Center for the American Dream

2 opinion pieces in key media

32+ media interviews

1 press release
1 press conference

The Center for Homeland Security and Immigration

8 high-level policy commentaries

13 opinion pieces published in key media

2 press releases
70+ television and radio interviews, establishing CHSI as a leading voice for strong border security and immigration enforcement

Numerous livestream events with over 350,000+ views

The Center for Election Integrity

6 data-driven research papers

12 opinion pieces published in key media

8 high-level policy commentaries

5 press releases
An interactive map showing where states rank in terms of election integrity law

Digital graphics and resources of election integrity polling support

155 radio interviews and 127 news media interviews

The Center for Energy Independence

1 data-driven research paper

1 policy fact sheet
1 legal amicus brief

2 projects influencing federal rulemaking with informed research

5 high-level policy commentaries

4 opinion pieces published in key media

9 press releases

The Center for the Environment

3 high-level policy commentaries

2 projects influencing federal rulemaking with informed research

1 legal amicus brief
1 opinion piece published in key media
1 press release

PROTECTING VOTING RIGHTS

The foundation of the American system of self-governance is liberty—and the core expression of that liberty is the ability of people to vote for their representation in free and fair elections. Any system that fails that simple test is a failure, and the people responsible for that system and the bad actors perpetrating fraud should be held accountable.

The Center for Election Integrity

AFPI launched the Center for Election Integrity in August of 2021 with an announcement at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Atlanta with Chair Dr. Alveda King, Chair Kenneth Blackwell, Board Chair Linda McMahon, President & CEO Brooke Rollins. The announcement was attended by more than 100 people and attracted national news, as well as state news in many key states. Since launching, the Center helped hold the line against the radical Left’s Freedom to Cheat Act, reached more than 6,000 elected officials and their staff, and educated more than 42,000 grassroots stakeholders. The Center has also conducted more than 100 TV hits and dozens of radio hits, and placed several op-eds in publications around the country.

Easy to Vote, Hard to Cheat

“Easy to Vote, But Hard to Cheat” has been a mantra in all communications by the Center for Election Integrity since its inception. Since launching, we have held the line against the Radical Left’s polices nationally and led efforts in 15 states by conducting research, educating stakeholders, and developing policies that help make it easy to vote but hard to cheat. We educated lawmakers on election reforms in the key states of Florida, Arizona, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. In doing so, we have worked to amplify the importance of voter identification, requiring ballots to be returned by Election Day, stopping the practice of ballot harvesting, ensuring voter rolls are consistently cleaned and updated, prohibiting the privatization of elections, and litigating cases of voter fraud.

The American people deserve to have faith, trust, and confidence in the outcome of elections, and AFPI is working tirelessly to protect voters and safeguard the integrity of future elections—because one illegal or inaccurate vote is one too many.

The $5 trillion Big Government Socialism Bill pushed by President Biden and the radical left was the most wide-ranging and immediate legislative threat to American prosperity and the American way of life in history. This bill attempted to remake America into a socialized nation by expanding the welfare state, giving amnesty to illegal immigrants, funding vaccine mandates and abortions, eroding United States energy independence, raising taxes on small businesses and American families, and replacing the family and local communities with socially engineered federal government programs.

Save America Coalition

Save America Coalition, an AFPI-led coalition of 65 like-minded conservative organizations, was launched to educate people about the socialist policies proposed in the massive spending bill. The Save America Coalition engaged in the fight to educate Americans, published hundreds of policy papers, hosted several roundtable discussions with high-level Members of Congress and congressional policy and communications staff, and traveled throughout the Nation to highlight the bad provisions in the Big Government Socialism Bill.

Over the course of four months, the AFPI policy team launched a coordinated and wide-ranging campaign through the Save America Coalition to educate the American people about the dangers of the bad policies in the Big Government Socialism Bill. It also released 42 policy papers totaling more than 500 pages of original research and 58 opinion pieces on the Big Government Socialism Bill to help expose these misguided policies. Larry Kudlow, Chair of the Center for American Prosperity and Vice Chair of the Board, led the charge by placing more than 50 op-eds in the New York Sun on the critical threat the bill represented for the future of American prosperity.

The campaign, which was co-chaired by Steve Moore and Larry Kudlow, secured 1,003 online, broadcast, print, and social media placements that reached an audience of millions of people. Efforts to expose the bad provisions in the Big Government Socialism Bill were amplified by more than 40 Members of Congress, including the House Republican Leader and Whip, and six congressional committees and caucuses.

This bill was guaranteed to be a big government socialist wish list of policies that would have fundamentally undermined the American dream. Thankfully, the bill failed to pass.

The radical left has used litigation to advance its unconstitutional and un-American agenda for decades. We’re using the Constitution—and some of the best legal minds in our country—to fight back. We will go toe-to-toe with the ACLU, the impervious federal bureaucracy, and the social engineers who seek to use litigation to remake our Nation.

BIG TECH CENSORSHIP

America is the great country that it is because our Constitution protects our freedoms, including freedom from censorship. Big Tech’s actions to censor everyday Americans stagger the imagination. As our Nation moves closer to being governed by unaccountable, unelected elites, we are here to hold them accountable because we are not ready to give up on the American experiment. Putting America First means defending our Constitution from threats such as censorship by Big Tech companies.

Constitution Litigation Partnership

The America First Policy Institute established the Constitutional Litigation Partnership (CLP) to restore the most fundamental rights of all Americans. Chaired by Pam Bondi, CLP focused on protecting and defending America First policies and constitutional freedoms. It partnered with law firms and other legal organizations to fight against the egregious overreach of Big Tech, Big Media, and Big Government that hampers the freedoms we prize as Americans. Through CLP, AFPI helped support taking on Big Tech and collected more than 100,000 stories of censored individuals. The case will highlight how Big Tech is working with and being coerced by the federal government to censor and eliminate the voices of millions of Americans.

Take on Big Tech

More than 100,000 Americans were motivated to share their personal stories of Big Tech censorship with AFPI at TakeOnBigTech.com. On July 7, 2021, APFI held an event with President Donald J. Trump to unveil the class action lawsuit on behalf of President Trump and a group of everyday Americans against Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for violating their First Amendment rights. The AFPI policy team has developed and championed policies, briefed legislators and policy leaders, and developed model state legislation on how states can combat tech censorship to protect Americans’ most fundamental rights: the right to speak, the right to be heard, and the right to democratic representation.

GOVERNMENT OVERREACH

AFPI fought for ALL Americans’ right to make personal healthcare decisions and prevent unconstitutional government overreach.

OSHA Vaccine Mandate

AFPI sued the Biden Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) over its effort to impose a workplace COVID-19 vaccine mandate—and we won! Because of the work we did in 2021 to prepare for a win in the Supreme Court in 2022, OSHA announced it would withdraw its unconstitutional vaccine mandate, which would have forced employees at businesses with 100 or more employees to choose between feeding their families or getting the vaccine.

The Biden Administration’s egregious and overreaching OSHA guidance threatened the livelihoods of hardworking Americans and private businesses across our Nation. This is a huge victory for preserving American liberty and protecting the rights of American businesses and workers, who are the true backbone of this great Nation.

Vaccine Mandate for Navy SEALs

In 2021, AFPI began work to file an amicus brief in 2022 in support of 35 U.S. Navy SEALs and other American service members to protect their religious liberties under the United States Constitution. With the expertise of Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Co-Chair of AFPI’s Center for American Security, CLP argued that the mandate is not only unconstitutional, but it undermines United States national security and is a direct threat to our Nation’s military readiness. No one, including our military, should be required to choose between violating their religious beliefs and serving our country. We stand united with our men and women in uniform and their families. These heroes have selflessly served our Nation and dedicated their lives to protecting it.

Reigning in Big Government

AFPI filed an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court Case, West Virginia v. EPA. This case was focused on the Obama Administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP), which was blocked by the Supreme Court of the United States and replaced by the Trump Administration. For the first time ever, CPP allowed the EPA to regulate CO2 from the electric power sector, which would raise prices on hardworking Americans. The Trump Administration then implemented the Affordable Clean Energy rule (ACE), which kept regulations on CO2 reductions inside the facility. Over the years, Congress has debated CO2 regulations but has never given the EPA this authority. While the rule under the Obama Administration expanded EPA’s authority despite statutory constraints, the Trump Administration’s rule was a narrow, text-based reading of the Clean Air Act.

West Virginia appealed the ruling by the D.C Circuit Court that invalidated ACE to the Supreme Court. AFPI’s Supreme Court amicus brief focused largely on the Major Questions Doctrine and presented arguments to rein in the overreach of the administrative state and support the ACE rule.

It is said that politics is downstream from culture. But the left has used politics to change our culture for decades. AFPI will not yield any further ground and is building the infrastructure needed to repeal and roll back the left’s cultural assault on our national identity, our history, our institutions, and our values.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY

Our education system is the foundation of our economy, society, and democracy. AFPI is defending the truth about America’s founding with research, education, advocacy, data, and policies that unite and reinvigorate patriotism rather than divide and set people against each other. We are reminding our citizens of and educating our children on the simple truth that America is worth fighting for. Our Nation has never been perfect, but it remains the greatest experiment in self-governance the world has ever known, and our founding principles remain a motivational beacon—both at home and abroad. 

Fighting for Patriotic Education

Unpatriotic elites and corporations across the country have used their power and money to create and normalize the narrative that America and the American founding are inherently bad—a narrative that to be patriotic is to be racist. That storyline is now being imposed on our children in schools across the country. This sort of hateful rhetoric has created a wave of anti-American sentiment.

Through the Center for 1776 and the Center for American Freedom, AFPI is reclaiming the narrative, crafting legislation, and educating school boards and parents. AFPI has taken hundreds of actions, reached thousands of people, and accomplished our specific goal of creating the most comprehensive database of school board members. The AFPI team has advised on policy and aligned curricula that state and local officials can leverage to get patriotic curriculum into schools through grassroots efforts.

EDUCATION REFORM

Our country was founded as one Nation under God, and our children were reminded of it every day. As we move forward, we must carefully consider the foundation of knowledge we are providing to America’s future leaders.

Giving Power Back to Parents

Every parent should have the opportunity to choose high-quality education for their children. This is the gateway to fulfilling the American Dream. Arguably, over the last few years, we have seen why educational choice is so critical, and parents are now holding school boards accountable for what is happening in classrooms.

Through the Center for Education Opportunity, AFPI is working to answer the call to help every American family and student pursue their desired educational opportunity and to obtain a high-quality education. Our children deserve the very best education we can give them. And that starts with parents being the decision-makers.

AFPI created the “Parent Power” website and database, which will host the most comprehensive education transparency data in the country. During the past year, it has served as a resource for parents and educators looking for patriotic curricula. The Center for Education Opportunity has also distributed comprehensive Parent Toolkits to more than 600,000 people, giving parents the tools they need to take back their schools and school boards.

Center for American Prosperity

The Center for American Prosperity’s (CAP’s) mission is to create a better economic future for all Americans. Achieving this goal will require policies that promote broad-based economic growth. Building on the transformative, pro-growth economic agenda of the Trump Administration, the Center will educate and inform public policymakers and the American people about three essential pillars of economic success that have proven time and time again to generate real and lasting prosperity: low taxes, limited federal spending, and restrained regulation.

IMPACT

AFPI established CAP as a thought leader in the economic space—developing content, building coalitions, and serving as a critical voice on policies that lead to American economic success. Its work includes the publication and amplification of white papers, opinion pieces, press releases, and op-eds, as well as media appearances and digital content on the most important economic issues facing Americans today, including inflation, employment, government spending, and tax policy.

In 2021, CAP identified the Big Government Socialism Bill as the most pressing threat to the future of American prosperity and explained that it was stuffed with harmful progressive policies and trillions in spending. CAP took a leadership role in launching a coordinated and wide-ranging AFPI-led effort to highlight and educate about the bad policies in the bill. The Center also produced important economic content that focused on the danger of the Biden Administration’s effort to create a cradle-to-grave, woke welfare state. The Big Government Socialism Bill did not become law in 2021.

LOOKING FORWARD

Going forward, CAP will remain vigilant against the Left’s attempts to advance big government socialist policies. The current challenges facing the American economy only serve to emphasize the importance of our efforts. In 2022, CAP will continue to build its proactive vision for economic policy that promotes American growth and affluence. This will include one of our key proactive priorities: continuing to educate lawmakers on the good policies in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). CAP will continue to emphasize the need to make the Trump tax cuts permanent, and we will oppose ongoing efforts to hike taxes and surrender America’s economic sovereignty to multilateral institutions. CAP will also support pro-growth tax reform in the states. Focusing on these goals and others will boost investment and enable small businesses to be successful.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Larry Kudlow, Chair
• James Carter, Director
• Beatrice Brooke, Policy Analyst
• Michael Faulkender, Visiting Fellow
• Cale Clingenpeel, Visiting Fellow

Center for American Trade

For years, the D.C. and global corporate elites, in the name of free trade orthodoxy, allowed markets and market efficiencies to be an overwhelming influence on policy decisions. Nowhere was that more evident than in the realm of international trade relations, where the United States repeatedly entered into deals that protected and promoted the interests of foreign workers, foreign agriculture, and foreign businesses—but not our own. American workers and American communities were ground beneath the inescapable “progress” that transformed the likes of Shenzhen and Reynosa into productive powerhouses, while the likes of Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh—America’s industrial backbone—slid into decline. Free trade is an intrinsic good, but only if it is also fair trade. AFPI will advance policies that champion free and fair American trade.

IMPACT

This Center for American Trade (CAT) was established in late 2021 and began developing content to ensure we put the American people and American interests first in trade. Ambassador Robert Lighthizer continues to travel the country as a premier thought leader in international trade.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, the Center will advance research to support further empowering American manufacturers and workers in trade policy. It will also engage with policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public to change the way our Nation does trade—permanently. Our Nation needs policies that recognize the consequences of persistent huge trade deficits, and CAT will continue to support the reevaluation of the role of the United States in international institutions. We must challenge the status quo when it is not in our Nation’s interest, and we must strategically pursue balanced, modernized, and worker-oriented agreements such as the USMCA that benefit all Americans.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Robert Lighthizer, Chair

Center for the American Worker

The spirit of the American worker is the very foundation of our Nation. There is no force more potent when left to be free, to prosper, and to flourish. The Center for the American Worker (CAW) advances policies that promote a full range of career opportunities and prepare our workforce for the industries of the future. CAW helps restore American workers to their proper place, which is at the center of governance and policy alike.

We have seen the disastrous consequences when a paycheck is decoupled from actually earning a living and the dignity of work. Government stimulus programs have distorted the basic incentive to work and better oneself, while creating additional problems such as inflation, labor shortages, despair, and social fragmentation.

IMPACT

CAW published research that dispelled the myth that free community college better equips our workforce for success. This piece illustrated that, as is often the case, the government stepping in to make something “free” can lead to a proliferation of serious problems and a failure to solve the problem that originally motivated the call for action.

The Center reimagined childcare by recognizing that children learn at all times and in all places. Policymakers can engage parents in designing policies and strategies that support families’ needs for childcare while also ensuring we do not create more government dependency for childcare.

Additionally, CAW played a key role as part of the Save America Coalition to highlight the negative consequences of work disincentives in the Big Government Socialism Bill.

LOOKING FORWARD

CAW will advance policy that puts American Workers first and will advocate for the forgotten men and women of this country. America is about innovation, and this Center will address and promote traditional and non-traditional pathways to family-sustaining careers. In addition, we will push for the removal of red tape through initiatives such as occupational licensing reform and will highlight the successes the Trump Administration had with similar efforts. CAW will continue to hold the line against policies that disincentivize work. We also recognize that small businesses are the lifeblood of the American economy, and CAW will seek to inform policymakers on the best ways to support and promote these essential American institutions. Our Nation needs policies that do not disadvantage small employers and that provide tax incentives to small businesses that provide retraining opportunities for workers. CAW will continue fighting for the American Worker and doing all it can to promote the creation of multiple pathways to family-sustaining careers.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Linda McMahon, Chair
• Rachel Slobodien, Director
• Joshua Orlaski, Director

Center for A Healthy America

The Center for a Healthy America (CHA) is invested in improving the health of Americans now and for generations to come. Decisions about what, how, and where care is received should be made by patients and doctors, not by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., state capitals, and the healthcare industry. For America’s healthcare system to return to its primary mission of improving the health and health outcomes of Americans and reach its full potential, advancement must focus on putting patients first. CHA creates healthcare policies and educates stakeholders to put patients and doctors in control, dignify life, promote better health and health outcomes, improve access, and lower costs for Americans. These objectives are critically important because the health of Americans is essential for a thriving and prosperous country.

IMPACT

CHA successfully fought against the proposed government expansion policies in healthcare in the Big Government Socialism Bill with three issue briefs, three op-eds by Governor Jindal, and one roundtable event in West Virginia with Representative Carol Miller (R-WV). The Center also developed alternatives to the healthcare policies proposed in the Big Government Socialism Bill and shared ideas with congressional offices and committees. Further, the Center led the healthcare working group for the Save America Coalition.

CHA promoted how states can lead on healthcare reform by publishing three op-eds by Governor Jindal, including two in the Wall Street Journal, authoring a chapter in a book on state health policy options, hosting a livestream panel segment with the governors of Texas and Mississippi, and presenting at AFPI events for state and local leaders.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, the Center for a Healthy America will continue to build a solid policy foundation to engage with policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public. We will focus on further executing a strategic approach to the America First Agenda in federal and state policy and the private sector. Specifically, we will educate policymakers and stakeholders in key states on select policy priorities during their 2022 legislative sessions and will continue to broadly educate about state and federal policies that seek to expand the role of government in healthcare and personal health decisions.

CHA will utilize coalitions and events to engage with individuals, parents, and families across the country to communicate our vision to put healthcare back into the hands of the American people. Among other priorities, CHA will support policies that allow Americans to purchase any health plan approved by their state insurance providers and that nullify the Affordable Care Act’s employer insurance mandate. Advancing these policies and others will result in better care, more choice, and lower costs.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Bobby Jindal, Chair
• Heidi Overton, M.D., Director
• Abigail Slagle, Policy Analyst

Center for Education Opportunity

The Center for Education Opportunity (CEO) was launched on July 15, 2021. The Center’s priorities are focused on advancing opportunities that will restore the educational system, putting American families and students at the forefront of the Center’s mission. CEO is focused on educating parents, state leadership, and local leadership on the importance of expanding educational opportunities and programs and on advocating for policies that make tangible reforms to our education system, ultimately creating greater outcomes for America’s future. Specifically, CEO is focused on expanding education opportunities, increasing student literacy, creating greater student outcomes, and improving spending transparency in education.

LOOKING FORWARD

CEO has selected priority states and policies for emphasis during the 2022 legislative sessions to advance education choice and leverage the momentum that was created in response to the failed public school approaches of the last few years. The Center is prioritizing active engagement and communications support in Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Iowa, Indiana, and Arizona. CEO will continue supporting policies of statewide open enrollment that would eliminate district boundaries and allow parents to enroll their children at any school in their respective states. We will also keep promoting policies that expand access to charter schools and allow public dollars to follow students regardless of which school they attend.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Scott Turner, Chair
• Laurie Todd-Smith PH.D., Director
• Joshua Orlaski, Policy Analyst

Center for Opportunity Now

The Center for Opportunity Now (CON) believes that opportunity is a concept deeply rooted in the American Dream. From the settlers exploring an untamed continent in the early days of our country to the small business owners turning the wheels of the greatest economy on Earth today, opportunity is at the very core of who we are as Americans. CON will focus its efforts on these core pillars of opportunity: revitalization through deregulation and market-based incentives and generational stability through the promotion of the family.

IMPACT

Much work was done in 2021 to prepare CON for a successful launch in March of 2022, which included research foundational to the production of white papers covering “The Promise of Opportunity Now,” “Fatherlessness and Its Effects on American Society,” and the “Opportunity Now Profile for Georgia.” The 2021 efforts also enabled CON to sprint to action in early 2022 with an Opportunity Zone bus tour, an Opportunity Now Roundtable, and a tour of the Riverbend Correctional Facility as launch events in Atlanta, Georgia.

LOOKING FORWARD

This coming year will be a big one for the Center for Opportunity Now. The current strategic focus has centered around fatherhood and fatherlessness issues and has included research papers, coalition building, and opinion pieces to drive the conversation for opportunity. Future efforts will continue to build on the belief that a strong country starts with strong families. CON will also develop plans for key states to put the “opportunity mindset” in action, particularly by highlighting how President Trump’s Opportunity Zones initiative can revitalize forgotten communities across America. As we move forward, we will continue advocating for the expansion of the Opportunity Zones program. American taxpayers should be allowed to receive favorable treatment when they invest some of their paycheck income in Qualified Opportunity Funds, which would give more Americans a direct stake in helping struggling communities.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Jack Brewer, Chair
• Garrison Grisedale, Policy Analyst
• Javon Price, Policy Analyst

Center for The American Child

Americans must provide the next generation with the resources and understanding necessary for their own journey as citizens. The primacy of parents and their authority—instead of the government’s authority—to raise their children has never been more evident or important. AFPI will advance policies to promote the social, emotional, and physical health of children. From improving our Nation’s foster care system to addressing neonatal abstinence syndrome to incorporating character education and social and emotional learning, AFPI will not fail our next generation and will provide a guiding light for a brighter future. In 2021, AFPI began planning for the launch of this center in the spring of 2022.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Kellyanne Conway, Chair

• Catharine Cypher, Advisor

Center for American Security

The Center for American Security (CAS) champions Americans rather than a theoretical “America” imagined by the Washington national security establishment. The exercise of American power requires clear justification, and an America First approach ensures that American power is used in the interest of Americans. To advance that goal, CAS looks to ensure that there will be rigorous advancement of policies that will serve as an authentically American alternative to Washington’s increasingly obsolete foreign and defense policy orthodoxy.

The phrase America First refers to an approach rooted in an awareness of America’s unique role in the world and its unmatched ability to do best for others when its people are strong, safe, and prosperous. It means that any commitments of American lives or dollars abroad must come with concrete benefits to the American people. Every investment of American resources needs to reap a substantial security benefit for the American people.

LOOKING FORWARD

Having established AFPI’s reputation as the guardian of the America First foreign policy and national security agenda, CAS plans to build on its efforts in 2022 by establishing AFPI as the leading voice on foreign policy and national security for the Conservative movement. In addition to regular research products driven by a strategic plan to define America’s path forward, CAS will support and collaborate with other Centers— particularly the China Policy Initiative—to educate both in states and virtually through webinars. CAS will also host and educate lawmakers at AFPI offices during events on top national security issues while continuing to manage relationships with a growing network of 500 stakeholders that include congressional staff, academic leaders, and think tank thought leaders.

In 2022, CAS will continue to support policies that promote a strong military and the return of the military to its core missions of warfighting and deterrence. Our military needs to eliminate non-military issues such as climate change and democracy promotion from military doctrine and defense policies, and it must address recruitment challenges by investing in service members and ending divisive departmental policies.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, Co-Chair

• The Honorable John Ratcliffe, Co-Chair

• Fred Fleitz, Vice-Chair

• Jacob Olidort, Ph.D., Director

• Cliff Sims, Senior Fellow

• Gloria McDonald, Policy Analyst

• Javon Price, Policy Analyst

Center for Homeland Security and Immigration

The Center for Homeland Security and Immigration (CHSI) is devoted to protecting the American people, American interests, and the American way of life. Simply put, if we do not have a border, we do not have a country. Our America First approach requires an immigration system that prioritizes border security and the value of citizenship, a strong and persistent counterterrorism effort, resiliency of our critical physical and digital infrastructure, and agility in the face of ever-shifting foreign threats and influence.

CHSI priorities include strengthening America’s border security and immigration policies, supporting counterterrorism efforts, creating and maintaining a strong physical and digital infrastructure, and defending against foreign influence

IMPACT

CHSI participated in a South Texas border security event and roundtable with former President Donald Trump to highlight the Biden Administration’s failed border policies. It also conducted several livestream events, such as the “20 Years After 9/11 Livestream,” “Border Security Discussion with Sheriffs,” and “Raising Awareness to Fight Human Trafficking.” These events were complemented by key interactions with state and federal legislators to advance CHSI priorities.

LOOKING FORWARD

A key CHSI priority for 2022 is to further refine our model immigration-related legislation at the state level and work with key governors on potential executive authorities to address human trafficking and an insecure border. At the federal level, we will work to analyze model legislation. CHSI will execute our research agenda by focusing on several key issues such as ending human trafficking, countering malign foreign influence, strengthening our immigration system, and securing the border. CHSI will remain the leading voice in the media advocating for America First homeland security policies.

Among other initiatives, America First homeland security policies should reconstitute the Victims of Immigration Crime Enforcement Office within DHS and should designate certain cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. CHSI will continue to support policies that would enable the United States to secure the border and protect the American people as we move forward in the 21st century.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Chad Wolf, Chair

• John A Zadrozny, Director

• Troup Hemenway, Policy Analyst

• Scott Erickson, Senior Fellow

Center for 1776

As we approach the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, we recognize we are at a pivotal crossroads. Our Nation is more polarized than ever before, and American patriotism and the values that founded the greatest political experiment of all time are under attack. AFPI’s Center for 1776 will advance policies that aid parents, citizens, educators, officeholders, and leaders in their efforts to ensure that Americans know and celebrate the true, accurate, and full American story. The ideals upon which the Nation was founded are the ideas that animate our work.

IMPACT

The Center for 1776 armed hundreds of thousands of activists and elected officials with toolkits and talking points in English and Spanish to fight racially divisive policies such as Critical Race Theory in their schools and communities. Our talking points were recited in the United States Capitol in the House of Representatives and in local school board meetings. The Center for 1776 has also strategically placed op-eds and advertisements to educate stakeholders on the critical importance of voting for candidates in 2021 school board elections who shared their values.

Time and time again, American athletes have been at the center of cultural change within our Nation and have been the driving force for American exceptionalism. Recognizing this, the Center for 1776 launched the Athletes for America coalition and began placing policy op-eds authored by athletes. Many of these great American athletes are diligent leaders in their communities—their influence and actions directly impact people’s lives. Moreover, an athlete’s extraordinary ability to engage, educate, and inspire Americans is critical to restoring American greatness.

We began the needed community engagement to change hearts and minds with a Back to School event with children and parents in an underserved community in Broward County, Florida.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, the Center for 1776 will focus on:

Policies on Patriotic Education and Teacher Accreditation in the States

Champion policies and curricula that state and local officials can leverage, use grassroots efforts to get patriotic curricula into schools, and reform the teacher accreditation and certification process.

Recovering America’s School Boards and Educating Parents

Build a list of all school board members and election dates, create a parent guide, utilize grassroots engagement, advocate for uniform school board election dates, and increase transparency and accountability.

Reclaiming the Narrative

Disseminate the truth about America and the American founding with a digital video series, animated videos, op-eds and TV hits, community outreach, and patriotic education. Utilize our grassroots partners and ambassadors to deliver patriotic content to millions of Americans. Additionally, the Center for 1776 will support state policies that ensure that no child in public school is compelled or directed to adopt or express belief in or support for a revisionist history of America’s founding.

Dismantling Teachers Unions

Educate on policies that eliminate collective bargaining in schools, replace collective bargaining with collaborative conferencing, establish paycheck protection policies, provide teachers with no-cost liability insurance, charge unions for the use of release time and official space, and require education unions periodically to stand for reelection.

Producing the Governor’s Guidebook

A bipartisan governors initiative to educate and assist governors with policies that advance a patriotic education and a “Pro-America, America,” including a guidebook regarding patriotic education for governors and their staff to reference.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

•  Lou Holtz, Chair
• Jack Brewer, Vice-Chair
• Alexandra Caro Campana, Director
• Governor Phil Bryant, Senior Advisor
• Jerry C. Davis, PH.D., Senior Advisor
• James Baehr, Senior Fellow
•  Cole Mushegan, Policy Analyst
• Alexander Wilgocki, Policy Analyst

Center for American Freedom

The Center for American Freedom (CAF) protects Americans’ freedom from traditional and emerging threats. CAF develops measures to hold the federal bureaucracy accountable, prevent bureaucratic abuses, and cut excessive red tape. The Center also develops measures to protect Americans from cancel culture and tech censorship, whereby private corporations seek to impose ideological conformity on the American people. It also combats policies that promote discrimination against Americans on the basis of immutable characteristics.

IMPACT

CAF developed model legislation to help states combat tech censorship while avoiding preemption under federal law or conflicting with the First Amendment. It also developed model legislation for states that want to ban Critical Race Theory in state governments comprehensively. Additionally, CAF published a report making a case for comprehensive civil service reform, including a return to at-will employment, that was widely covered in the D.C. area trade press.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, the Center for American Freedom will focus on:

State Legislation

CAF will continue to meet with state legislators to educate them on state-level policy reforms to protect citizens from Big Tech censorship and prohibit state-sanctioned bigotry, such as instilling the tenets of Critical Race Theory in students.

CAF will also develop policy proposals to protect Americans from administrative abuses that threaten their due process rights and research policies to restore Congress’s power over regulatory policy. Major agency rules or guidance documents should not be allowed to take effect without an affirmative vote of Congress.

Holding the Bureaucracy Accountable

CAF will develop policy proposals to modernize the civil service by reducing federal employee removal protections, which will help hold federal bureaucrats accountable to the people’s elected representatives. Agencies should be free to remove employees for any non-discriminatory reason, with no external appeals.

Critical Race Theory

CAF will develop policy proposals to combat Critical Race Theory in public employment by replacing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies with an alternative such as Merit, Equality, and Fairness. This alternative treats employees as individuals and not representatives of demographic groups and prohibits the use of ideological litmus tests, including adherence to Critical Race Theory ideology in government hiring.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable David Bernhardt, Chair

• James Sherk, Director

Center for American Values

As the Declaration of Independence states, the responsibility of the American government is to secure the God-given rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Today, a dizzying array of ideas and influences counter to foundational American values threaten our inalienable rights and our democratic republic system of government. To fight back against these influences, AFPI’s Center for American Values (CAV) will advance research and educate stakeholders on policies that respect and protect life, uphold God-given liberties, preserve freedom of expression, and restore basic ideals and values. CAV will also feature the “Second Chances Project,” which will use a faith-based lens to drive data-informed approaches for effective incarceration policies and confront the root causes of crime: broken families and a lack of faith.

IMPACT

CAV seeks to re-instill the same foundational American values and God-given freedoms that have propelled our prosperous society into the hearts and minds of all American citizens. We have done so through the publication and amplification of opinion pieces, digital content, issue briefs, and op-eds, in addition to coalition-building with the faith-based community, policymakers, and the general public.

In 2021, CAV assumed a leadership role leading up to the annual March for Life, building coalitions with pro-life faith leaders from around the nation. CAV has continually produced key content that protects life, defends religious freedom, restores parental rights, promotes free speech, safeguards the right to bear arms, and secures the prosperity of the nuclear American family.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, CAV will create a collection of issue briefs to help educate faith leaders, community leaders, and policymakers, and align issue framing and messaging.

CAV will conduct hands-on research with a local crisis pregnancy center, exemplifying the “do-tank” mantra to connect with the operations implementation side of the life issue.

CAV will research and closely track the Biden Administration’s overreach, which is damaging American values, and will educate Congress to assist in effective oversight.

CAV will continue to support and expand AFPI’s role and brand within the conservative movement, with a particular focus on issues related to life, religious liberty, freedom of speech, the Second Amendment, and parental rights.

Specifically, CAV will continue to support policies that protect churches from being forced to hire employee candidates who disagree with their tenets and convictions, and policies that encourage “permitless carry” and concealed carry reciprocity across all 50 states. We will also support ending all federal funding that supports Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, domestically and globally.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Pastor Paula White-Cain, Chair

• Bethany Kozma, Director

• Lauren Baldwin, Policy Analyst

• Drake Franklin, Policy Analyst

• Garrison Grisedale, Policy Analyst

• Javon Price, Policy Analyst

Center for Election Integrity

The foundation of the American system of self-governance is liberty, and the core expression of the people’s liberty is the ability to cast their ballots in free and fair elections. As best said by Samuel Adams, “Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote...that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country.” In this way, safeguarding faith in the integrity of our elections is nothing less than safeguarding the future of our Republic.

AFPI’s Center for Election Integrity (CEI) aims to protect just, legal, transparent, and fair elections while recognizing that states—not the federal government—are best situated to determine voter eligibility, registration, Election Day processes, and voter roll management. We believe that every eligible voter should have the opportunity to cast one ballot at one time that is counted once. Anything that fails this simple test is a failure of the system, and the people responsible for that system should be held accountable. One fraudulent vote or one administrative mistake is one too many when it comes to protecting each sacred vote. The goal of the CEI is to make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.

IMPACT

AFPI created the CEI as a thought leader in the election integrity field—working with state legislatures to promote beneficial policy, forming grassroots change, making available public resources to educate Americans on election integrity issues, and analyzing the areas where our election processes need reform. CEI successfully published white papers, opinion pieces, press releases, and op-eds. It also issued poignant statements on news of the day and conducted many media appearances. CEI continues to focus on election issue areas that are of concern to a vast majority of Americans, including requiring voter ID, ensuring accurate voter rolls, requiring ballots to be returned to election officials by Election Day, establishing ballot harvesting laws that protect chain of custody, banning Zuckerbucks, requiring voting machines to be made in America, and maintaining bipartisan oversight of elections—to name a few.

In 2021, CEI developed 25 specific recommendations to state legislatures for the upcoming legislative sessions. It disseminated these recommendations and worked with grassroots coalitions and stakeholders to educate the public about election integrity issues. CEI prioritizes using legislative means where possible, and in those places where legislative reform is blocked by the veto of an obstructionist governor, taking the issue directly to the people in referenda and initiatives such as those in Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona. The effort to ensure every single legally cast ballot and every single legal voter is protected is one supported by the American people—and the products created have helped achieve CEI’s stated goals.

LOOKING FORWARD

In 2022, CEI will continue to help restore Americans’ trust in our election system while recognizing and respecting that each state has independence in determining how to conduct its elections. One of the major priorities CEI will focus on in 2022 is cleaning up voter rolls in the states. We will work on partnering with local faith-based stakeholders to organically grow a dedicated group of individuals who can work towards this goal. These remain top priorities for progressing towards election policies that are transparent, fair, and accountable.

CEI will also continue to support policies that would require all voters to have photo ID, ban Zuckerbucks, and require all ballots to be returned by Election Day, among other priorities.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Ken Blackwell, Chair

• Hogan Gidley, Director

• Kweku Boafo, Director of Policy & Research

• Anna Dove, Policy Analyst

• Mike Vallante, Senior Advisor

• Chad Connelly, Senior Advisor

• Jason Allen, Advisor

• Charlie O’Neal, Pennsylvania Policy Advisor

Center for Law and Justice

The rule of law is fundamental to our Nation and citizenry. However, it is impossible for our Nation’s citizens to be secure if crime plagues our streets and lawlessness dominates our communities. The Center for Law and Justice (CLJ) advances policies that support the American people’s right to live and prosper in free and secure communities. Respect for law enforcement, reverence for the law, and upholding it are essential to American life and liberty.

IMPACT

CLJ produced many op-eds and opinion pieces about current events, such as a response to the smash-and-grab crime waves, commentary on reversing soft-on-crime policies, and analysis on parents being labeled terrorists. These all contributed to the Chairs obtaining media hits to discuss our priorities and the establishment of CLJ’s position as a prominent voice in the public domain for law and order.

CLJ conducted and participated in several events, such as the Raising Awareness to Fight Human Trafficking Panel. The human trafficking panel, in conjunction with the Center for Homeland Security, received nearly 30,000 views. CLJ worked with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin to advise him on his human trafficking executive order. These were complemented by subsequent engagement with state and federal legislators to educate lawmakers.

LOOKING FORWARD

For too long, the defund the police movement and anti-law and order movement have created resentment toward law enforcement and civility, making our communities and families less safe. These America Last policies do not work, and this dangerous belief in lawlessness puts every single American citizen in harm’s way. We strive to advance the rule of law and freedom, the bedrocks of our Republic, and we work to accomplish our goals through research, policymaker education, and policy advocacy. This coming year, CLJ will focus on cementing outcome-oriented relationships with federal and state legislators and their staff, informing these members and staff on key issues and challenges, and making ourselves available in an advisory capacity to support substantive proposals. CLJ will advocate through media appearances, advance policy products, and use other means of commentary to improve policies across the Nation.

As we move forward, CLJ will support policies that stop the decriminalization of crimes at the state and federal level and promote the aggressive enforcement of existing criminal laws. Our Nation must restore law and order. Additionally, we will support enhanced penalties for assaults on law enforcement officials and support efforts to enhance criminal penalties for convicted gang members, traffickers, and other participants in organized crime.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

•The Honorable Pam Bondi, Co-Chair

• The Honorable Matt Whitaker, Co-Chair

• Bill Woolf, Director

• Troup Hemenway, Policy Analyst

Center for Media Accountability

The American Founders recognized that a free press was essential to preserving our liberties and our Republic, despite having a their own complicated relationship with the press. The backbone of our Nation rests on freedom of speech. AFPI will explore the effects that media imbalances and current practices have on the American people and our system of government through the new Center for Media Accountability. This Center will be launched in 2022.

Center for The American Dream

Fifty-nine years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood proudly on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave his famous and inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech. He understood that for a Nation to remain viable, it must be possible to peacefully live with one another, showing respect and caring for one another, united as one human race. These values will allow a free nation to exist; else, that nation will destroy itself from within. Dr. King expressed the classic American view that it mattered not where you came from, what religion you practiced, or what the color of your skin was, but that the content of your character was most important. While our Nation has not always upheld that promise of equality, America has fought to exemplify these words and bring them to fruition. We have worked to weave those unalienable rights into the beliefs and laws in this country. The remarkable freedoms Americans now enjoy are a direct result of the foundation laid by our Founders, the dedication of the American people to such core values, and the fidelity of institutions to these principles. These freedoms would not have been possible if not for America’s unity, faith, justice, and belief that “all men are created equal.”

AFPI’s Center for the American Dream (CAD) will advance policies that enhance civil rights, human dignity, and the sanctity of life in order to ensure that all Americans have equal access and opportunity to achieve the American Dream—from the womb to the tomb!

LOOKING FORWARD

Moving forward, CAD will continue to fight for equal access and opportunity for all Americans to achieve the American Dream. In 2022, CAD will continue to stand against Critical Race Theory and seek to protect all students from any attempts to indoctrinate them with radical ideology. CAD will produce toolkits for local, state and federal legislators that will present research-based tactics for transitioning from systems of equity to equality. Additionally, CAD will continue to build upon the principles of human dignity, civil rights and the sanctity of life through public discussions, collegiate engagement, and media engagement in order to further the cause of freedom and equality for all Americans – from the womb to the tomb. CAD will also make the moral argument for educational choice—the civil rights issue of our time.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Dr. Alveda King, Chair

• Dr. Chris Leader, Chief Advisor

• Rob Pacienza, Senior Fellow

Constitutional Litigation Partnership

For years, we have watched the left manipulate our judicial system to pursue its political agenda, often with no recourse for conservatives. No longer. America is under threat from ideologies that are an affront to our founding principles. The American way of life, including federalism, free speech, and the rule of law, is being undermined and distorted by Big Government, Big Tech, and Big Media. As a result, AFPI established the Constitutional Litigation Partnership (CLP) to restore the most fundamental rights of all Americans. CLP will fight to rebuild a government that is of the people, by the people, and for the people.

IMPACT

Take on Big Tech

On July 7, 2021, CLP supported President Trump’s legal team, which led a class action lawsuit on behalf of President Trump and a group of everyday Americans against Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for violating their First Amendment rights. All three cases are being heard in the Northern District of California, where the tech giants filed Motions to Dismiss, and the Biden Administration filed Motions to Intervene, asking the Court to avoid ruling on the constitutionality of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. AFPI motivated more than 100,000 Americans to share their censorship stories.

Pending Litigation

 In 2021, AFPI began a partnership with the Alliance for Free Citizens. AFPI filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of the United States Active Duty Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and the Air National Guard to protect their religious liberties from the Biden Administration’s military vaccine mandate. This case is currently the largest military religious liberty filing in the Nation. AFPI filed suit in March of 2022 in the U.S. District Court of Nebraska. Our filing argues that the military litigants who choose to remain unvaccinated for religious reasons should prevail under the First Amendment and Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Filings with the United States Supreme Court

In 2021, our team began preparation and eventually filed an amicus brief on March 3, 2022, in support of football coach Joe Kennedy. Coach Kennedy was fired by a school district in Washington state over silently praying in public at the end of each high school football game. Our brief, which is supported by Coach Lou Holtz, AFPI’s Chair for the Center for 1776, and Scott Turner, AFPI’s Chair for the Center for Education Opportunity, provided the Court with a unique insight into our impressive athletic staff and focused on the civic relationship between faith and sports.

The CLP collaborated with Alliance for Free Citizens to file a Petition for Review and Motion to Stay the Emergency Temporary Standard introduced by OSHA. Our case was consolidated with 33 other lawsuits and went before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). CLP’s efforts led to SCOTUS granting the petitioner’s request to stay the Biden Administration’s OSHA mandate and signaled that OSHA does not have the statutory authority to implement the Emergency Temporary Standard. The Biden Administration withdrew the unconstitutional rule shortly thereafter.

Our team partnered with Boyden, Gray & Associates to file an amicus brief in a Clean Air Act climate change case that will be heard before the SCOTUS. CLP presented arguments that rein in the overreaching administrative state of the Biden Administration.

Other Supportive Briefs 

Our team began work in 2021 on an amicus brief filed in February of 2022 with the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. The brief asked them to affirm the appellate court’s decision that Pennsylvania’s Act 77’s no-excuse absentee voting regime violates the Pennsylvania Constitution. The thrust of our argument is that no-excuse mail-in voting is rife with fraud and that as a policy matter, the Court should uphold the decision invalidating the Act. This brief is supported by Ken Blackwell, AFPI’s Chair of the Center for Election Integrity and former Secretary of State for Ohio.

Our team began coordination in 2021, and in early 2022 filed an amicus brief in support of 35 U.S. Navy SEALs and other American service members to protect their religious liberties under the Constitution of the United States. With the expertise of Lt. General (Ret.) Keith Kellogg, AFPI’s Co-Chair of the Center for American Security, CLP argued that the mandate is not only unconstitutional, but it undermines United States national security and is a direct threat to our Nation’s military readiness.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Pam Bondi, Chair

• Catharine Cypher, Chief of Staff

• Craig Trainor, Senior Litigation Counsel

• Josh Campbell, Attorney

• Rachel Jag, Associate Attorney

• Venetia Resciniti, Staff Assistant

Center for Energy Independence

The Center for Energy Independence’s mission is to create a better future for all Americans with policies that promote American energy independence, resilience, and dominance. America First energy policies are grounded in free-market principles and promote a transparent and fair regulatory environment centered on the understanding that innovation, competition, and government transparency enable us to make the best use of our Nation’s natural resources while protecting our land, water, and air. We work to promote policies that unleash American energy potential and innovation. This policy approach drives growth across industries, fuels investment in infrastructure and job creation, and allows American foreign policy to be directed by our priorities and principles, not foreign energy dependence. That is energy freedom.

IMPACT

The Center for Energy Independence established the American First Policy Institute as a leading voice on energy—setting the foundational policies for America’s energy future. A central focus for the Center was helping to lead AFPI’s efforts to create content and build coalitions to educate about the bad policies of the Big Government Socialism Bill. This includes an ongoing focus on the Green New Deal programs that threaten to destroy American energy independence and raise energy prices for American families.

The left’s fanatic embrace of environmental activism is hurting American families, straining budgets, driving inflation, and causing increases in energy costs not seen since the 1970s. It must be defeated with sound policies that grow family incomes, improve quality of life, and nurture clean air and water.

The Center also partnered with the Centers for the Environment, American Prosperity, and American Freedom to file and amplify two sets of formal comments on the Biden Administration’s proposed delay and reversal of the Trump Administration’s historic NEPA reforms. These reforms were a critical step toward reducing overburdensome regulations that were a net drag on the Nation’s economy and that prevented modernization of American energy infrastructure—all while maintaining environmental protection.

Further, the Center partnered with the Center for the Environment and AFPI’s Constitutional Litigation Partnership to support an amicus brief in West Virginia vs EPA, a Clean Air Act case that has reached SCOTUS. The brief includes a focus on the overreaching administrative state to which the Biden Administration has returned. AFPI laid out arguments challenging the D.C. Circuit’s decision upholding the core principles of President Obama’s illegal and destructive Clean Power Plan regulation that was promulgated by the EPA.

LOOKING FORWARD

The Center for Energy Independence recognizes that energy policy is essential to economic and national security. We are invested in the future of American energy policy that promotes American prosperity, supports our international priorities, and protects our environment. The Center will continue to work on behalf of the American people to further rational policies that are not driven by political insiders and special interests using fear or apocalyptic rhetoric. Our team will ensure that energy policies are reasonable, cost-competitive, and in the best interest of the American people. Additionally, the Center will fight to protect competition, incentives for innovation, and the American family.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Ricky Perry, Chair

• Sam Buchan, Director

• Beatrice Brooke, Policy Analyst

Center for New Frontiers

America was not founded to restore an imagined past but to move its people into a bright and brilliant future. In this first half of the 21st century, the United States stands on the precipice of an array of extraordinary possibilities. Dreams from our yesterdays—interplanetary travel, autonomous vehicles, subterranean transit systems, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, organ regeneration, extraordinary new power sources, and others—are poised to enter our tomorrows. AFPI will advance policies that nurture America’s experimental spirit. This center will be launched in 2022.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• Steve Smith, Director

Center for The Environment

The Center for the Environment works to promote strong environmental stewardship and prosperity, ensuring that every American has access to clean air and water, regardless of their ZIP code. The Center recognizes that environmental progress and American prosperity are mutually necessary. Rightsized, transparent regulation can protect important public interests and allow free-market incentives to drive commercially viable innovations that create real environmental progress. We work to develop policies that ensure United States leadership on environmental protection and allow for the American innovation and growth that is fundamental to the future of both our environment and our people.

Our environmental vision focuses on real results for our communities, not political agendas or virtue signaling in foreign capitals. At the heart of the America First environmental vision is community-driven environmentalism that promotes community revitalization. This means that where possible, the federal government should focus on communities, working with states and local governments to help communities help themselves to improve the environmental quality across the nation. Environmental laws and regulations must be targeted, enforceable, and enforced. This means enforcement and compliance tools are used for their intended purpose of solving environmental problems such as reducing air pollution, protecting drinking water, reducing lead exposure, and revitalizing communities—not weaponized or used for social engineering.

IMPACT

The Center for the Environment established the American First Policy Institute as a thought leader in the environmental space—developing content, building coalitions, and serving a critical voice on policies that lead to environmental progress and human.

The Center for the Environment was a key participant in the all of AFPI’s efforts to educate on the Big Government Socialism Bill. It had a particular focus on the Green New Deal, and more broadly on how the Biden Administration’s radical climate change agenda focuses on a top-down approach that puts Washington in the driver’s seat, expands opaque, overburdensome bureaucracy, and sacrifices additional United States resources into empty, unenforceable promises of international cooperation. This approach comes at the expense of American economic and national security, all while failing on its stated goal of environmental progress.

The Center for the Environment engaged on key regulatory priorities as a voice for modernized, rightsized regulations, working to prevent government overreach and protect the environment in a way that advances the future of the American people. To this end, AFPI submitted public comments on the Biden Administration’s reversal of the Trump Administration’s historic reforms to the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and helped support CLP on an amicus brief on a Supreme Court of the United States case related to the Clean Air Act, focusing on the critical importance of reining in administrative state overreach. Specifically, AFPI filed the brief with the Supreme Court in support of petitioners in West Virginia v. EPA, challenging the D.C. Circuit’s decision upholding the core principles of President Obama’s illegal and destructive Clean Power Plan regulation that was promulgated by the EPA.

CENTER TEAM MEMBERS

• The Honorable Andrew Wheeler, Chair

• Beatrice Brooke,Policy Analyst

In 2021, AFPI collected nearly $15 million in donations and more than $8 million in verbal commitments for 2022 and beyond.

Thank you

For faithfulness to the American Past.

For fighting for the American Present.

For confidence in the American Future.

FOR PUTTING AMERICA FIRST — ALWAYS!