Heard at Heritage

In 2004, the first students began participating in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program – a private school choice program serving low-income families in Washington, D.C. This year marks 15 years of the scholarship program’s operation in the nation’s capital, with more than 1,650 children currently using D.C. OSP scholarships to pay tuition at participating private schools across the city. Scho...

Last year alone, 16.7 million individuals suffered some form of identity theft. This crime exposes victims to many difficulties in their daily lives, ranging from the inability to participate in our economy to the inability to prove to a potential employer (or even our government) that they are a US citizen. Our antiquated system of collecting trivial facts and government IDs to confirm the identi...

On December 4, 2018, after five years of failed attempts to get Russia to return to compliance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty obligations and verifiably destroy its 9M729 missile system, the U.S. officially announced its intentions to withdraw from the treaty. There is much debate regarding what actions the U.S. should take as it prepares to withdraw from the INF treaty. M...

Conservatives, classical liberals and libertarians celebrate the fact that people have unequal (or diverse) talents, preferences, risk averseness, attachments and cultures because these are the central element to the rich tapestry of an enlightened, humane and prosperous society. These differences will inevitably lead to economic differences. And those differences are not objectionable. Any politi...

It has been 25 years since Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) with near unanimous support. Since then it has prevented the government from infringing on the freedom of a wide variety of religious individuals and groups to exercise their religious beliefs. But with the new Congress, there could be legislative efforts to limit the application of RFRA. Join us for a keynote...

Did you know that contraception and abortion were not originally part of the women’s movement? How did the women’s movement, which fought for equal opportunity for women in education and the workplace, and the sexual revolution, which reduced women to ambitious sex objects, become so united? In the book Subverted, Sue Ellen Browder documents for the first time how it all happened, in her own life...

The Constitution contains a number of provisions designed to protect economic liberty, including the contracts clause, the takings clause, the Privileges and Immunities Clause, the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clauses, and others. The structure of the constitution and the negative commerce clause also protect economic freedom. This reflects the founders support for limited government...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative turns five years old this fall, first unveiled by President Xi Jinping in a pair of speeches in late 2013. The infrastructure and connectivity initiative has proven far more ambitious, and far more controversial, than anyone could have predicted at that time. Under the BRI umbrella, China has already spent, pledged, or invested over one hundred billion dollars in i...

Sri Lanka was plunged into a political crisis in late October when President Maithripala Sirisena suspended parliament and attempted to install his former ally and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as prime minister. Decried as illegal and unconstitutional by incumbent Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his supporters, the extra-constitutional maneuver has been opposed by a majority in parli...

Ambassador John Bolton unveils the Trump administration’s new Africa Strategy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rapid changes in reproductive technologies combined with the redefinition of marriage have resulted in more and more children intentionally denied a relationship with one or both of their biological parents. Meanwhile, the media claims that “all kids need is love.”A new children’s rights organization is shedding light on the very real and lasting cost children pay when the desires of adults are pr...

Our military faces a wide array of challenges across the globe today. China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational terrorism all require U.S. military resources, but defense budget cuts have left the force underfunded and undersized for the tasks we are asking it to perform on a daily basis. The National Defense Strategy Commission, a bipartisan effort to assess the state of the military, a...

Over 70 years ago, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers supplanted battleships as preeminent warship with their ability to strike enemy warships or land targets hundreds of miles away. Since World War II, U.S. aircraft carriers and the carrier air wing have operated relatively unthreatened, providing unrivaled air support and power projection capability in every U.S. conflict. Recently, an increasing numbe...

Rev. Robert Sirico will recount his own moral, intellectual and spiritual development. Animated by a strong sense of social justice, he began a well-intentioned but ill-conceived career in leftist activism. A serious grappling with the classics of economics lead him to reevaluate his ultimate commitments. In meditating on the nature of the human person, choice and action in society, he began to re...

The United States Government has prosecuted over 400 Islamist terrorists since 9/11. While several of those convicted will spend the rest of their lives in prison, the overwhelming majority will one day reenter society. Over the next five years, nearly a quarter of the U.S.’s terror convicts will complete their terms of imprisonment. This raises a critical and little examined question regarding U....

There is a philosophic battle being conducted at universities and in the media which will determine the future of our country. On one side are the defenders of the classical liberal position, best expressed in the Declaration of Independence, supporting the unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness “. On the other side are the statists of all political persuasions who believ...

One of the key criticisms of capitalism is that it creates more inequality than other systems. That may or may not be true. The effective inequalities among elites and citizens in the former Soviet bloc were gigantic. That, however, is beside the point. The fundamental worldwide economic problem is poverty. The history of the development of market economies in the past 50 years is unparalleled in...

Every day 21 veterans are overcome by mental, psychological, and emotional stress and die by suicide. That number is far too high. We must take action to protect the brave men and women who protect our country through their service. Recent studies demonstrate that disciplined religious practice helps veterans build resilience against depression and suicidal thoughts. Join us for a discussion with...

The American republic is rife with conflicts, hostility, and incivility. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel. Our society's conflicts are rooted in two rival views of freed...

In 2015, disturbing undercover videos of abortion industry representatives discussing the sale of aborted baby body parts shocked the nation, led to multiple Congressional investigations, and resulted in criminal referrals of procurement companies and abortion providers. But questions about the scientific value and ethical considerations to fetal tissue research remain. Is such research necessary?...

Identity politics directly threatens the achievements of the Enlightenment, the Founding and the Civil Rights Movement, from freedom of speech to freedom of association and conscience. By partitioning America into ethnic, racial and sexual groups with antagonistic demands and grievances, Identity Politics returns us to the Plessy decision legalizing separate but supposedly equal treatment and it r...

The only program of its kind, the Conservative Women's Network is made up of nearly 1,000 women in the Washington, D.C. area. Often broadcast by C-SPAN to 90 million viewers, these monthly luncheons are co-hosted by the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute and The Heritage Foundation. CWN provides women with a forum for becoming informed on current issues, networking with area professionals, and the...

Washington had Alexander Hamilton, and Jefferson had Albert Gallatin. In the first fight to set federal fiscal policy for the new American nation, Gallatin won. He cut taxes, reduced by the national debt by half, reformed government finances and funded both the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812. In his new book Jefferson’s Treasure, Gregory May explains why Gallatin, more than Hamilton, was A...

Finance and Philosophy provides a concise and witty account of how bankers and financial regulators think, of the alleged causes of the cycles of booms and busts, of the implicit and often un-thought-out assumptions shaping retirement finance, fiat money, corporate governance. Pollock deftly shows how poorly bankers have measured the risk their banks have been exposed to. With candor and clarity,...

Every year, the Antipoverty Forum brings together the best policy experts and practitioners on conservative ideas in education, welfare, health care, and civil society to talk about the solutions can bring real change to the lives of the poor. Join us to hear updates from Members of Congress and the administration, celebrate stories of impact from real communities and families whose lives have bee...