The Niskanen Center is a Washington, D.C.-based

think tank A think tank, or 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-govern ...

that advocates

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

reform,

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties ma ...

, and strengthening social insurance around market-oriented principles. The center is named after William A. Niskanen, an economic adviser to President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

. The Center states that its "main audience is Washington insiders," and characterizes itself as a moderate think tank.

History

The Niskanen Center was founded in early 2015 by Jerry Taylor. At its launch, the center was composed primarily of former staffers of the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Ind ...

who departed in the wake of a 2012 leadership struggle pitting Ed Crane against the

Koch Brothers The Koch family ( ) is an American family engaged in business, best known for their political activities and their control of Koch Industries, the 2nd largest privately owned company in the United States (with 2019 revenues of $115 billion). ...

for control of the libertarian think tank. Taylor and vice president Joe Coon publicly aligned themselves with Crane during the dispute. Both departed shortly after Crane was replaced by John Allison as Cato's president as part of the settlement with the Kochs. Funding for the center includes donors who seek to counter

libertarian conservative Libertarian conservatism, also referred to as conservative libertarianism and conservatarianism, is a political and social philosophy that combines conservatism and libertarianism, representing the libertarian wing of conservatism and vice ver ...

hostility to anti-global warming measures.

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

businessman Jay Faison, a Republican donor, made an early contribution to the Niskanen Center to spur public climate education but has ceased all ties to the organization in recent years. They include the Open Philanthropy Project, which supports the center's work to expand legal immigration, the Lawrence Linden Trust for Conservation, which provided the Niskanen Center with a grant "to develop and analyze a potential economy-wide carbon tax", and a $400,000 operations grant from the

Hewlett Foundation The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, commonly known as the Hewlett Foundation, is a private foundation, established by Hewlett-Packard cofounder William Redington Hewlett and his wife Flora Lamson Hewlett in 1966. The Hewlett Foundation aw ...

. In May 2022, the organization announced that

Ted Gayer Ted Gayer (born May 8, 1970) is an American economist and the president of the Niskanen Center. He is formerly the executive vice president of the Brookings Institution, where he also once served as the vice president and director of the Economic ...

, an executive vice president at the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

, would serve as the Niskanen's next president. Gayer started in his role on August 1, 2022.

Policy areas

The Niskanen Center focuses on a number of distinct areas of public policy including climate change, social insurance policy, healthcare, immigration reform, and technology and civil liberties.

Climate change

The Niskanen Center advocates the imposition of a global carbon tax for the purpose of offsetting

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

and the effects of climate change. The Center also endorses the understanding of climate change as

anthropogenic Anthropogenic ("human" + "generating") is an adjective that may refer to: * Anthropogeny, the study of the origins of humanity Counterintuitively, anthropogenic may also refer to things that have been generated by humans, as follows: * Human i ...

and believes that government action is a necessary component of mitigating the risks associated with long term

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cr ...

and

extreme weather Extreme weather or extreme climate events includes unexpected, unusual, severe, or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a locat ...

events associated with climate change. The Niskanen Center's support for carbon taxation represents a nearly complete reversal of Taylor's previous advocacy at the

, where he was a vocal climate change skeptic. Taylor explained his shift in a 2015 interview with Vox, indicating that he had "fundamentally switched" his previous beliefs on the issue after seeing new scientific evidence and the more general strengthening over time of the case for the dangers of climate change, as well as arguments from fellow libertarians about responses to the challenge of climate change that were consistent with, and even required by, a libertarian political stance. In November 2015 the Niskanen Center announced the founding of a new Center for Climate Science under the direction of Dr. Joseph Majkut, a climatologist who previously served on the staff of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

Immigration

Strengthening Humanitarian Immigration – The Niskanen Center has argued that the United States best safeguards its national identity and global leadership by welcoming those refugees and other immigrants. Since then, Niskanen has hosted two Hill events focusing on the practical benefits of refugee resettlement to the U.S. Hill Event on Refugee Resettlement

References

External links