WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America today announced a set of strategic policy priorities that will form the roadmap for conservatives over the next three years. 

During a Thursday event at Heritage with Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and Heritage Action Executive Director Jessica Anderson laid out the set of seven issues that will comprise the core of Heritage’s policy agenda:  

• Empower parents to make education choices 
• Secure America’s borders and reduce crime 
• Ensure free and fair elections 
• Reverse the growth of regulations, spending, and inflation
• Counter the threat of Communist China 
• Hold Big Tech accountable
• Protect unborn life and family formation

Just one year into the left’s near-absolute control of the federal government, Americans are already experiencing the cruel consequences of so-called “progressive” policies. They are suffering from historic prices at the gas pump and grocery store, experiencing rising crime in their communities, suffering from the most deadly border crisis in American history, watching “wokeism” take over our schools and businesses, and seeing America embarrassed and weakened on the world stage. These outcomes are the result of an agenda that puts America last, undermining our values and our institutions as a nation. 

Roberts and Anderson released the following statement on the organizations’ new policy roadmap: 

“Americans deserve so much better than the radical, destructive, and divisive policies of the Biden administration and the far left. They deserve an agenda that puts them, their families, and their interests above the interests of coastal and globalist elites. They deserve leaders who will fight on their behalf at the state and federal level. That’s why Heritage will spend the coming years fiercely advocating for vital reforms and policy changes, particularly in these areas of deepest concern for Americans across the country. 

 

“It is long past time for the United States to stand up to the Chinese Communist Party’s malign and destabilizing influence, both here and abroad. It is time for parents, not teachers' unions and woke bureaucrats to make the best education choices for their children. We must secure our borders, re-establish law and order in our communities, hold Big Tech accountable, protect unborn children’s right to life, secure our elections, and rein in the reckless and wasteful spending by Washington driving record inflation. 

 

“If conservatives work together, make our case to the American people, and hold our policymakers accountable, we can take advantage of this once-in-a-generation opportunity to restore American greatness and save our republic. If conservatives fail to do so, we will have failed the American people, our movement, and this important test of history.” 

Polling commissioned by Heritage Action revealed what the American people are looking for their leaders to communicate and govern on Here are some of the findings by issue:  

• Education: Half of all Americans (50%) say “parents of school-aged children should have a role in deciding what is taught in public schools,” while 50% also believe “we should have school choice programs which allow parents to use some of the money that government would spend to educate their child in traditional public school to send them to the public, private, or charter school of their choosing.”  

• Rule of law: A majority of Americans (64%) disapprove of the job President Biden and Congress have done addressing illegal immigration and the crisis at the southern border and believe they should reinstate some previous Trump administration policies (61%). 

• Election integrity: Most Americans support photo IDs to vote (79%) and oppose vote trafficking practices like ballot harvesting (66%). 

• Spending and inflation: 80% of Republicans and a plurality of independents (43%) blame reckless government spending, rather than COVID, for historic inflation. 

• China: Most Americans believe “China’s military expansion and aggressiveness is a direct threat to the national security of America” (74%) and that “China has been stealing American jobs and technology for decades and it’s time we stop depending on China” (87%). 

• Big Tech: Most Americans (82%) believe “Big Tech companies have too much power over their platforms and have used it to expand their control of the public debate and shape our politics.” 

• Protecting life: A majority of Americans support limits on abortion (56%) and banning taxpayer funding for abortions (65%). 

Results come from a national sample of 1,200 voters across the country, and show an appetite for bold reform that crosses ideological and geographic barriers. 

Learn more about Heritage’s strategic policy priorities here: “Fighting for America’s Future.” 

Scott also recently released a policy agenda for conservatives in the next Congress, “Rescue America.”