When Congress returned to Capitol Hill after its summer recess, Heritage experts jumped right back into the conversation, with six experts testifying before congressional committees in September alone.
“Heritage experts are relied upon frequently to provide critical information to members of Congress and the public on key issues,” said Dani Doane, director of Heritage’s Congressional Program. “For example, as Senate Republicans tried to gain support to repeal and replace Obamacare, Heritage’s Ed Haislmaier was right there, influencing the debate.”
Haislmaier, Heritage’s Preston A. Wells Jr. senior research fellow, testified on Sept. 12, before the Senate Finance Committee about the costs and coverage of healthcare.
The very next day, Rachel Greszler, a research fellow in Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, testified before the House Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with suggestions on the Office of Management and Budget’s ongoing government-wide reorganization effort.
And at the height of the North Korea debate, Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow in Heritage’s Asian Studies Center, testified before the House Financial Services Committee on North Korea sanctions.
"For too long, successive administrations have used sanctions as a calibrated and incremental diplomatic response to North Korean provocations, rather than a law enforcement measure defending the U.S. financial system,” wrote Klinger in his prepared testimony.
“Washington should sanction all entities violating U.S. laws, executive orders, and regulations rather than, as in the past, doling out a few entities to be designated after each North Korean violation. Sanctions do not enforce themselves. They require active, continuous implementation."
On Sept. 26, Katie Tubb, a policy analyst in Heritage’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Interior, Energy, and the Environment Subcommittee about the storage and management of nuclear waste.
On Sep. 27, Walter Lohman, director of Heritage’s Asian Studies Center, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee about the grotesque human rights issues involving Rohingya Muslims in Burma.
And on Sept. 28, Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow at Heritage’s Institute for Constitutional Government, testified before the Subcommittee of Regulatory Reform on the Congressional Review Act.
This year, Heritage experts have spoken at more than 485 congressional hearings and briefings.
