Heard at Heritage

Senator Mike Lee joins Heritage’s Tommy Binion for a conversation on the Senate filibuster, its history, and what might happen if it is abolished. The Senate has been described as the world’s greatest deliberative body, and unlike the House, was designed for extensive deliberation on important legislation. The filibuster has long been seen as a mechanism to incentivize the two parties to work toge...

Human trafficking is a major problem facing our nation today. Over the past several years, law enforcement at the local, state, and federal levels have made combatting it a top priority. Join our panelists as they discuss their own experiences investigating and prosecuting human trafficking offenses, what’s worked and what hasn’t from a policy standpoint, and how a Biden Administration’s prioritie...

How ready is the United States for war? The answer to this question requires more than just ship counts or quantities of munitions. True readiness cannot be measured without an honest assessment of America’s defense industrial base. Over the last 30 years, the makeup of the defense industrial base has changed dramatically. There are far fewer prime defense contractors, more cases of single-source...

America’s constitutional order is under great stress. The breakdown in respect for our institutions—in government, the academy, and the media—has helped to instigate a season of violence and social unrest with no end in sight. Join our experts for a discussion about these developments and what they mean for America. Renowned Civil War historian Dr. Allen Guelzo will explore the parallels between o...

America has embarked on a long-overdue effort to modernize its nuclear deterrent, most of which is decades old and becoming obsolete. A critical part of this effort is the Air Force’s development of the Long Range Standoff weapon (LRSO), a new generation of the current nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile (ALCM), which is q...

Secretary Azar reflects on the Trump Administration’s early actions on COVID-19 and what lessons can be drawn from the response, including travel restrictions that slowed the spread, pressure for transparency from China, bringing Americans home safely from abroad, rapidly formed partnerships with the private sector, and educating the American people with the best science available at the time. Hos...

Human trafficking in all forms is abhorrent, but when governments enslave and sell their own people, it takes on an even more pernicious edge. 2020 marked the first year that the State Department designated state sponsors of human trafficking, with ten nations earning the dubious distinction. These designations were an important step in raising awareness about how regimes exploit their own citizen...

Critical Race Theory (CRT) and public policies based on this worldview will not alleviate racial inequality in the real world. In fact, this dogma undermines human and social factors—such as family, entry-level work, and merit-based education—the wellspring of upward mobility. Yet, the rigid persistence with which believers apply this theory has made CRT a constant, daily presence in the lives of...

Join us for an exclusive conversation on the China challenge between Heritage’s James Carafano and Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf. At the conclusion of a year dominated by COVID and China Policy, Acting Secretary Wolf will discuss the policies that the Department of Homeland Security has put into place to address China, including travel, trade, and what is yet to come. Hosted on A...

Modern Anti-Semitism often manifests itself as hostility against Israel—particularly on college campuses, at the United Nations, and even in U.S. Congress. Despite claiming to lack hostility toward the global Jewish people, today’s “anti-Zionists” single out the world’s only Jewish state for specific and demonizing criticism. Casting Israel as a villain on the world stage, this rhetoric makes ampl...

To conclude this two-part series, we ask what the future of work and unions looks like in America. We will discuss both positive and negative ideas for long-term labor reform; from sectoral bargaining, which would mandate one-size-fits-wall wages and benefits across entire industries, to more positive recommendations that would instill flexibility and voluntarism in collective bargaining. Prior to...

The U.S. Army has made modernizing its capabilities a top priority, establishing 8 cross functional teams, six new modernization priorities, and a new 4-star command—Army Futures Command. Under this new command, the organization charged with delivering technology solutions is the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, also known as DEVCOM. More than 14,000 soldiers, civilians and contr...

Join us as we celebrate one of the most significant protections of liberty in the history of the world: The Bill of Rights. Adopted 229 years ago, on December 15, 1791, the United States Constitution's first ten amendments protect our most fundamental rights and liberties and guarantee equal protection under the law. In honor of the Bill of Rights, we will bolster five trailblazing initiatives tha...

The Trump Administration withdrew from the flawed Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and applied maximum pressure on Iran to attain a stronger and more favorable agreement. But Tehran refused to negotiate and escalated its uranium enrichment, attacks on Arabian Gulf oil facilities, and proxy attacks on the U.S. and its allies. Presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged in September to return to the Iran Deal...

The United Nations Charter charges the organization with “promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all.” Sadly, the U.N. has often failed to fulfill this obligation. In particular, the Human Rights Council has demonstrated bias and ineptitude, too often manipulated by the world’s worst human rights abusers. The U.S. left the Council in 2018 after other go...

Four decades ago, Bob Woodson founded an organization to identify, connect, and enhance the work of community leaders fighting problems like poverty, addiction, gang violence, and prisoner recidivism. He discovered common traits and principles at work in the extraordinary grassroots leaders he’s worked with over the years. Now he’s sharing these lessons for everyone looking for answers about what...

A new era of Great Power Competition is dawning between the U.S., China and Russia, and the struggle for dominance spans all the world’s oceans. The U.S. Navy is turning to meet this new threat, but the fleet has spent recent decades focused on near-coast operations and support for counterterrorism. Now, it must confront rival navies on the high seas and compensate for Chinese and Russian uses of...

Last winter, the regulatory system at the FDA, the CDC and CMS delayed the ability of the United States to rapidly develop and deploy COVID-19 testing. These regulatory failures contributed to the rapid spread of COVID and led to lockdowns, and a wave of infections. This time around, the agencies could (and should) enable us to get ahead of the virus by approving rapid self-testing kits for COVID-...

In part one of this two-part series, we will discuss what the election outcomes mean for labor policy in the near-term, including insights about what to expect from the next Congress, Administration, and State and Local governments. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. labor market was experiencing record-setting lows in unemployment and rising incomes, with the largest gains accruing to th...

In the past four years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has achieved significant environmental benefits while reining in past agency overreach. It has finalized numerous regulations that respect the rule of law, federalism, and property rights. It has also been proactive in strengthening transparency in agency decision-making. This includes promoting policies that will help ensure the us...

The Baltic Sea remains one of the most complex regions that the U.S. and NATO are obligated to defend, with Russia posing the only substantial threat to peace and stability. The impact of Russia’s growing presence in Belarus, the evolving global pandemic, the outcome of U.S. elections, and NATO’s ongoing period of reflection will cause ripples for Baltic Security. Finland, Sweden, and the U.S. sha...

November is National Adoption Month and the morning after Election Day a critical case about foster care and religious freedom was heard by the Supreme Court. The pandemic shutdowns have reduced the supply of families for the 424,000 children in foster care, 125,000 of whom are eligible to be adopted. Even before COVID-19, the opioid crisis dramatically increased the number of children in the stat...

Imagine American life without private property rights and a free market system, the foundation that men and women, since the nation's birth, developed and preserved. Plymouth's first colonial settlement rejected communal property and successfully implemented the idea of individual property rights by promoting individual initiative and prosperity within the community. Today the assault on private p...

Faced with the possibility of deep rifts within their new community, the signers of the Mayflower Compact did something almost unheard of in Europe: They mutually agreed to enact “just and equal laws” to guide them in their new political community. There would be no king among their ranks; rather, they would submit themselves to laws that they themselves had written. In this, the Pilgrims offered...

The 2020 Antipoverty Forum will highlight people and policies reconnecting communities to overcome poverty and social challenges. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.