The Reform Institute is an American non-partisan, not-for-profit think tank based in Alexandria, Virginia, that describes itself as centrist oriented. According to its website it is an "organization working to strengthen the foundations of our democracy and build a resilient society. The Institute formulates and advocates valuable, solutions-based reform in vital areas of public policy." [1]
The major policy areas the institute focuses on are energy and environmental policy, homeland and national security, economic opportunity and competitiveness, immigration reform, and governance and election reform. It states its vision as "to build a more resilient nation that is able to overcome the challenges we collectively face and emerge as a stronger country. A resilient nation requires: a fully transparent and accountable government, a citizenry that is actively engaged in the political process and has genuine access to the wealth of opportunities that the free market has to offer, and institutions and infrastructure capable of facilitating and taking full advantage of the ingenuity and determination of the American people by promoting private sector innovation." [2]
The institute was criticized during the 2000 decade as an extension of Senator John McCain's political ambitions. [3] The New York Times described the institute in this fashion: "In a small office a few miles from Capitol Hill, a handful of top advisers to Senator John McCain run a quiet campaign. They promote his crusade against special interest money in politics. They send out news releases promoting his initiatives. And they raise money--hundreds of thousands of dollars, tapping some McCain backers for more than $50,000 each." [4]
The Reform Institute was launched in 2001 and grew from the movement to challenge campaign finance practices such as unlimited and undisclosed "soft money" donations. The initial bipartisan honorary co-chairs of the institute's advisory committee were Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and former Senator Robert Kerrey (D-NE). Senator McCain served in the position from 2001–2005. Senator Kerrey was associated with the committee until 2008.
The institute was a part of the broad coalition that successfully secured passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 – also known as McCain-Feingold – the campaign finance reform legislation that among other things prohibited soft money contributions. The institute then turned its focus to defending the law against constitutional challenge and ensuring that it was properly enforced by advocating for the restructuring of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and calling for regulation of 527 groups operating outside the law's soft money ban.
In addition to its work at the federal level, the institute also engaged in efforts at the state and local level to enact reforms including initiatives on public campaign funding of state and local elections, redistricting reform to eliminate gerrymandering of electoral districts, ballot access, open primaries, and election administration and voter assistance.
After passage of the McCain-Feingold bill the institute expanded its agenda to other public policy areas. However, as of April, 2011, its web page was no longer active and links to it were broken. The institute did not file form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service for 2009.
In the homeland security field the institute has articulated the need for resilience – the ability to withstand and quickly recover from a catastrophic event – to be given equal weight to preventing terrorist attacks in U.S. homeland security policy. [5] It convened a March 2008 national symposium [6] [7] on the subject in New York City and has advanced the concept in Congressional testimony [8] and publications. [9]
On immigration the institute has advocated for comprehensive immigration reform – reasoning that balancing security and enforcement with meeting the workforce and economic needs of the country are the best way to fix the nation's broken immigration system. In 2007 the institute partnered with Brickfish in an online contest to draw attention to the issue by encouraging entrants to express the message they thought the border fence conveyed by virtually designing a portion of it. [10] [11] The viral campaign was recognized by Forrester Research with its Groundswell Award for Social Impact. [12]
The institute's political reform work has included endorsing the successful California Proposition 11 (2008) redistricting ballot initiative, partnering in a national voter assistance hotline in 2008, [13] warning of the threats to judicial independence of the rising sums being raised and spent in judicial elections, [14] supporting public campaign financing initiatives in states like Maryland, Hawaii and Wisconsin, and offering recommendations for Congressional reform. [15]
The institute's energy and environment program includes helping make the smart grid a reality and promoting the need for comprehensive energy reform through an April 2009 national symposium [16] in Washington, DC, and publications.
The Reform Institute is led by Executive Director Cecilia I. Martinez. Its board of directors is chaired by Paul Bateman of the Klein & Saks Group and includes Charles Kolb of the Committee for Economic Development, Lawrence Hebert of the Dominion Advisory Group and political consultant Pam Pryor.
The institute's advisory committee consists of many academics, corporate executives and policy makers who help to guide the organization's policy program. Notable members of the advisory committee include Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), former Senator David Boren (D-OK), former Congressman Charles Bass (R-NH), Timothy Farrell of Bank of America, Marie Royce of Alcatel-Lucent, Marc Spitzer of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Matthew Freedman of Global Impact, Inc., Don Murphy of Genn & Murphy, LLC, Robert Kelly of CenTauri Solutions, LLC, Ken Nahigian of Nahigian Strategies, LLC, Dan Ortiz of the University of Virginia School of Law, Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution, and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute.
John Sidney McCain III was an American politician, statesman and United States Navy officer who served as a United States Senator for Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the United States House of Representatives and was the Republican nominee for president of the United States in the 2008 election, which he lost to Barack Obama.
Joseph Isadore Lieberman is an American politician, lobbyist and attorney who served as a United States Senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee for Vice President of the United States in the 2000 election. During his final term in office he was officially listed as an independent Democrat and caucused with and chaired committees for the Democratic Party.
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Charles Timothy Hagel is an American military veteran and former politician who served as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1997 to 2009 and as the 24th United States secretary of defense from 2013 to 2015 in the Obama administration.
Byron Leslie Dorgan is an American author, businessman, and former United States Senator and United States Representative from North Dakota. He served 12 years in the U.S. House and 18 years in the Senate. As of 2011, he serves as a senior policy advisor for the Washington, DC law firm Arent Fox LLP. He was a member of the Senate Democratic leadership for 16 years, first as Assistant Democratic Floor Leader and then as Chairman of the Democratic Policy Committee and Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. In 2010, Dorgan announced that he would not seek re-election in the 2010 North Dakota senate election.
The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns. Its chief sponsors were senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and John McCain (R-AZ). The law became effective on 6 November 2002, and the new legal limits became effective on January 1, 2003.
Robert Carl "Bud" McFarlane is a retired Marine Corps officer who served as National Security Advisor to President of the United States Ronald Reagan from 1983 through 1985.
A publicly funded election is an election which is funded with federal tax and/or income tax.
Richard Jeffrey Danzig is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 71st Secretary of the Navy under President Bill Clinton. He served as an advisor of the President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign and was later the chairman of the national security think-tank, the Center for a New American Security.
Barbara Lawton is an American businesswoman and politician from Green Bay, Wisconsin who is the President and CEO of Americans for Campaign Reform. A member of the Democratic Party, Lawton was the 43rd Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. She became the first woman elected to the position in 2002, as the running mate of former Democratic Governor Jim Doyle. Lawton was re-elected on November 7, 2006. She was co-founder and Director of External Affairs for Issue One, a nonprofit whose goal is to reduce the influence of money in politics.
Mark David McKinnon is an American political advisor, reform advocate, media columnist, and television producer. He was the chief media advisor to five successful presidential primary and general election campaigns, and is a co-founder of No Labels, an organization dedicated to bipartisanship and political problem solving. He served as vice chairman of Public Strategies, Inc., which was acquired by the international communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton Strategies, and was president of Maverick Media. McKinnon is the co-creator, co-executive producer, and co-host of Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth and consulted on the HBO series The Newsroom and Netflix's House of Cards. He was a regular columnist for The Daily Beast and The Daily Telegraph (London).
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U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a member of the U.S. Congress from 1983 until his death in office in 2018, a two-time U.S. presidential candidate, and the nominee of the Republican Party in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, took positions on many political issues through his public comments, his presidential campaign statements, and his senatorial voting record.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) is a non-profit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. that addresses federal budget and fiscal issues. It was founded in 1981 by former United States Representatives Robert Giaimo (D-CT) and Henry Bellmon (R-OK), and its board of directors includes former Members of Congress and directors of the Office of Management and Budget, the Congressional Budget Office and the Federal Reserve.
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Dr. Paul N. Stockton is the President of Paul N Stockton LLC, a strategic advisory firm in Santa Fe, NM. From 2009-2013, Dr. Stockton served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs, where he helped lead the Department's response to Hurricane Sandy. He was responsible for Defense Critical Infrastructure Protection, Western Hemisphere security policy, domestic crisis management, continuity of operations planning, and a range of other responsibilities. While Assistant Secretary, Dr. Stockton also served as Executive Director of the Council of Governors. After serving as Assistant Secretary, Dr. Stockton was the Managing Director of Sonecon LLC, an advisory firm in Washington, DC, from 2013-2020.
Issue One is an American nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the role of money in politics. It aims to increase public awareness of what it views as problems within the present campaign finance system, and to reduce the influence of money in politics through enactment of campaign finance reform.
Richard Mroz "Rick" is the founder and Managing Director of Resolute Strategies, LLC and also Senior Director for Strategic & Regulatory Affairs at Archer Public Affairs in Trenton, NJ. He stepped down from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to start his firm. He has a long and distinguished career in law, government, and public service and a leading advocate in securing and making the grid more resilient from both cyber and physical attacks. He is a regular adviser to industry and frequent commentator on energy and security issues. He is the immediate past President of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Governor Chris Christie nominated him for this position on September 18, 2014; the nomination was unanimously approved by the New Jersey Senate on September 22, 2014. Due to his position, Mroz was a member of the Governor's Cabinet. His experiences are as a regulator, lawyer, lobbyist, banker, consultant and thought leader on issues including energy markets & technologies, cybersecurity, water & wastewater policy, and infrastructure development & financing in various industries.
Alice Chamberlayne Hill is an American policy-maker and academic, currently the David M. Rubinstein senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. She previously served as a fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. During the Obama administration, she was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Resilience Policy at the National Security Council, leading development of policy regarding national security and climate change, building climate resilience considerations and capabilities into international development and other federal initiatives, and developing national risk-management standards for damaging natural hazards. Prior, she served as Senior Counselor to the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, as a federal prosecutor, and judge and supervising judge within the Los Angeles Superior Court.
Julia Nesheiwat is a US Commissioner on the US Arctic Research Commission,focusing on climate, energy, the environment and national security. Previously, she served as the American national security adviser who served as the 10th Homeland Security Advisor in the Donald Trump Administration, from 2020 to 2021. She also served in the Bush and Obama administrations.