WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 14 — The Heritage Foundation today opened its newest policy shop, the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget. Operating within the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, the Center will focus on federal fiscal policy areas with the vision of getting America back on track and confronting the problems that lawmakers have dismissed as intractable—from tax and entitlement reform to budget process reform.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the creation of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget,” said Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James. “The Heritage Foundation and the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies have a long history of supporting pioneering work on budget policy, as epitomized in the Blueprint for Balance publication.”

Budget policy expert and current Grover M. Hermann Research Fellow Romina Boccia will serve as Director of the new Center.

“I am excited to lead a team of exceptional budget experts to restore fiscal responsibility and reduce the burden of excessive government spending and taxing on current and future generations of Americans,” said Boccia, who joined Heritage in 2011. “I am grateful for the trust placed in me by The Hermann Foundation and Heritage to lead America in this battle.”

The establishment of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget was made possible with a $5 million grant that coincides with the sunsetting of The Grover Hermann Foundation. Its founder and benefactor, Grover M. Hermann, was a successful businessman from Callicoon, New York, who lived from 1890 to 1979. He was a champion of free enterprise and philanthropist, and the founder of American Marietta Corp. (later merged into Martin Marietta Corp., now Lockheed Martin).

The Grover Hermann Foundation is in the process of closing its operations following more than six decades of grants to organizations primarily in the fields of education, health, community, and public policy. It has always maintained a strong belief in the founding principles of the United States, supporting a society that encourages individual liberty and a work ethic, that rewards the initiative and effort required to make a success of private enterprise, and that recognizes the values of free market competition and limited government.

“Our relationship with The Hermann Foundation goes back some three decades, and it has produced many innovative ideas and policy solutions,” said Heritage Foundation Founder Ed Feulner. “We at Heritage are grateful to be recipients of Mr. Hermann’s generosity.”

James concluded, “The creation of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget recognizes Heritage’s pivotal position on influencing policymaking through intellectually rigorous research. We look forward to continued work in this area for the sake of preserving the America of hard work, prosperity, and liberty that Grover Hermann knew.”