It did not try to deregulate trucking, in the face of opposition by the Teamsters union, which had endorsed Reagan. For instance, it stripped the Office of Surface Mining of much of its power and made the Occupational Safety and Health Administration more 'cooperative,' as the foundation had recommended.Īnd Reagan did push through block grants for education and other social programs and latched on to the Heritage Foundation idea of 'enterprise zones' to revitalize decaying inner-city areas.īut, the administration did not pursue the idea of abolishing the Education and Energy departments after encountering congressional resistance. The administration also loosened many federal regulations affecting industry and made regulatory agencies less adversarial. The Heritage Foundation has had far from a perfect batting average, however, with the Reagan administration.Īccording to a 'report card' the foundation issued one year after Mandate I, about 60 percent of its proposals had been adopted or were in the process of being implemented.Īmong the successes were many of the ideas on which Reagan had campaigned in 1980: cutbacks in many programs and taxes, increases in defense spending and reductions in federal work force.

In addition, three dozen or more Heritage Foundation employes found full- or part-time niches in the federal government, from the White House to the State Department to the Office of Management and Budget.Īs one White House insider put it, 'There are several think tanks that contributed, but Heritage had the most influence.' is considered a key adviser to presidential counselor Edwin Meese III and his name has been mentioned recently for the 'conservative' slot in the White House if Meese becomes attorney general. Its less-government-is-best thinking is in line with Reagan and several of its board members, including conservative beer brewer Joseph Coors, long have been strong supporters of Reagan. Mandate II was presented to the Cabinet last week, and Heritage Foundation officials said they began making the rounds to department heads to go through the document and show them how pull the government further right.įor four years the Heritage Foundation has had easy access to the administration, providing ideas as well as facts and figures. 'The second time Paul Revere said, 'the British are coming, the British are coming,' people would have paid attention,' said Heritage Foundation vice president for research Burton Pines. Some members of the administration kept well-thumbed copies of the document, a wish list for the right wing, within easy reach during the early days of the administration. And its 'Mandate for Leadership II,' a compendium of more than 1,300 proposals for President Reagan's second term, has attracted attention because its 1980 'Mandate For Leadership I' became a bible of sorts for many in the Reagan White House.

The organization is the Heritage Foundation. On Tuesday, a larger group showed up - just to discuss one chapter of the organization's updated blueprint. Four years ago, a small, conservative think tank on Capitol Hill unveiled a 1,093-page blueprint designed to force the federal government to the right, and about 20 reporters came by for an explanation.

Edwin meese ii