The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) is an American
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
think tank
A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...
based in
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
. The organization was co-founded in 1989 by
James R. Leininger and Fritz S. Steiger, who sought intellectual support for his education reform ideas, including public
school vouchers
A school voucher, also called an education voucher in a voucher system, is a certificate of government funding for students at schools chosen by themselves or their parents. Funding is usually for a particular year, term, or semester. In some cou ...
. 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."
History

TPPF was initially co-founded in 1989 by
James R. Leininger, a physician, businessman and conservative activist from
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, Texas, and Fritz S. Steiger, a businessman who had formerly worked for
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and
Sam Walton
Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for Co-founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in Rogers, Arkansas, and Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1962 and 1983 res ...
. Leininger is notable for his school voucher and privatization activism. The organization's board of directors includes 19 individuals. Originally based in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, it was relocated in 2003 to
Austin, Texas
Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
, to be near the state capitol. In February 2015, TPPF moved into a new $20-million building two blocks from the Texas Capitol.
In 2010, TPPF received funding from
Koch Industries
Koch, Inc. () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas, and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiarie ...
as well as Geo Prison Group, a
GEO Group
The GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) is a publicly traded C corporation headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, that invests in private prisons and mental health facilities in the United States, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. The company ...
company. Donors to the organization have included energy companies
Chevron,
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation ( ) is an American multinational List of oil exploration and production companies, oil and gas corporation headquartered in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. Founded as the Successors of Standard Oil, largest direct s ...
, and other
fossil fuel
A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms (animals, plants or microplanktons), a process that occurs within geolog ...
interests.
In January 2018, the organization announced that it had opened a new office in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
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 states' 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 ("Policy Primers") covering a range of issues, and an annual conference ("Policy Orientation for the Texas Legislature"). The 2015 policy orientation included
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...
,
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy Gingrich (; né McPherson; born June 17, 1943) is an American politician and author who served as the List of speakers of the United States House of Representatives, 50th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1 ...
, and
Phil Gramm
William Philip Gramm (born July 8, 1942) is an American economist and politician who represented Texas in both chambers of United States Congress, Congress. Though he began his political career as a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Gr ...
.
[
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
Rafael Edward Cruz (; born December 22, 1970) is an American politician and attorney serving as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Cruz was the solicitor general of Texas from 2003 ...
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
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
had selected Kathleen Hartnett White to serve as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is a division of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, Executive Office of the President that coordinates federal Natural environment, environmental efforts in the United States ...
. At the time, White was a fellow at TPPF. White had said that climate change does not exist and that United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
findings on climate change are "not validated and politically corrupt." She 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 its intention to withdraw its nomination of Hartnett White as a senior advisor on environmental policy.
TPPF has been described by NPR
National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
as "an influential think tank that opposes efforts to fight climate change and receives millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests." A 2023 study by TPPF found that the total cost of fueling an electric vehicle
An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...
would equate to an electric vehicle owner "paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline."
TPPF lobbied for the Texas legislature to ban the prescription of puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors.
TPPF is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025
Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is a political initiative to reshape the federal government of the United States and consolidate executive power in favor of right-wing policies. The plan was published in ...
, a collection of conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
and right-wing
Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property ...
policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation (or simply Heritage) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1973, it took a leading role in the conservative movement in the 1980s during the Presi ...
to reshape the United States federal government
The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States.
The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
and consolidate executive power
The executive branch is the part of government which executes or enforces the law.
Function
The scope of executive power varies greatly depending on the political context in which it emerges, and it can change over time in a given country. In ...
should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election
This is a list of elections that were held in 2024. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections around the world.
*2024 United Nations Security Council election
*2024 national electoral calendar
*2024 local electoral ...
.
Notable staff
* Chuck DeVore, vice president of national initiatives
* Talmadge L. Heflin, distinguished senior fellow
* John Hostettler, vice president of federal affairs
* Thomas Lindsay, director of Higher Education Policy
* Ron Simmons
Ronald K. Simmons (born May 15, 1958) is an American former professional wrestler and Gridiron football, football player. He is best known for his tenures in WWE and World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Prior to becoming a professional wrestler ...
, director of Right on Work
* Carol M. Swain, distinguished senior fellow
* Joshua Treviño
Joshua Treviño is an American political commentator, formerly a consultant and United States Army officer. He is a former George W. Bush administration speech writer and was listed as a 2006 Lincoln Fellow with the Claremont Institute. , chief of intelligence and research
* Zach Whiting, senior fellow of technology policy
See also
* Kevin Roberts
* State Policy Network
The State Policy Network (SPN) is a nonprofit organization that serves as a network for conservative and libertarian think tanks focusing on state-level policy in the United States. The network serves as a public policy clearinghouse and advi ...
References
External links
*
*
EDIRC listing
(provided by RePEc
Research Papers in Economics (RePEc) is a collaborative effort of hundreds of volunteers in many countries to enhance the dissemination of research in economics. The heart of the project is a decentralized database of working papers, preprints, ...
)
Organizational Profile
– National Center for Charitable Statistics
The National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) is a clearing house for information about the U.S. economy as it relates to nonprofit organizations. The National Center for Charitable Statistics builds national, state, and regional databases ...
(Urban Institute
The Urban Institute is a Washington, D.C.–based think tank that conducts economic and social policy research to "open minds, shape decisions, and offer solutions". The institute receives funding from government contracts, foundations, and p ...
)
{{authority control
Organizations based in Austin, Texas
Political and economic think tanks in the United States
1989 establishments in Texas
Conservative organizations in the United States
Climate change denial
Organizations established in 1989