Big Changes at Heritage Foundation and Its Lobbying Arm

Heritage Action, the sister lobbying arm of the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, recently announced that Tim Chapman has become the organization's new executive director.

Here is a brief biography from Heritage:

Prior to serving as Heritage Action’s chief operating officer, Chapman served as chief of staff to Heritage Foundation President Ed J. Feulner, Ph.D. In this position, he advised Dr. Feulner on public policy matters and activities of the conservative movement. He also managed Dr. Feulner’s office staff and Heritage’s day-to-day operations. Chapman also held multiple positions in the United States Senate.

In April, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) hired Heritage Action CEO Mike Needham as his new chief of staff.

Dan Holler, a founding staffer at Heritage Action, recently left Heritage to become Rubio's deputy chief of staff.

Dan Ziegler left Heritage Action in March to become director of the Republican Study Committee (RSC).

In other Heritage news, the chairman of the think tank's board of directors, Thomas Saunders III, announced that he will step down from his position.  He will be succeeded by current vice chairman Barb Van-Andel Gaby.

Also, Heritage just opened the $15 million E.W. Richardson Building to house its interns.

Here is a recent opinion piece from the Washington Examiner entitled "Conservative Heritage Action Loses Its Fangs." 

Brave Brookings Scholar to Join Trump Administration

The Trump Administration has selected dozens of people from conservative think tanks for various White House and Cabinet positions.  In fact, there is not a single person on the Trump team that has been tapped directly from a liberal-leaning think tank - until now.

Fiona Hill, a Senior Fellow at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, has been offered a job at the National Security Council (NSC).  Here is more from Foreign Policy:

The Trump administration has offered a well-respected scholar and sober critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin the position of White House senior director for Europe and Russia, a White House official told Foreign Policy.

Hill, a dual U.S.-UK citizen and former U.S. intelligence officer from 2006 to 2009, has written critically of Putin’s autocratic tendencies and desire of a “weakened U.S. presidency.”  In her 2013 biography of Putin, she warned policymakers not to underestimate the Russian strongman given his strategic cunning and ability to find weaknesses in opponents derived from his experience in the KGB.

Hill was offered the position by National Security Council chief of staff Keith Kellogg prior to the ouster of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. She hasn’t yet filled the position and is still going through procedural steps such as background and security checks, according to the White House official. Hill is “in the process to take over the Europe and Russia position,” said the official.

Here is Hill's official biography from Brookings, along with her past writings.  Besides being a Senior Fellow at Brookings, she also serves as Director of the think tank's Center on the United States and Europe.  Hill is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

Here is a recent Think Tank Watch piece on the White House-think tank revolving door in the Trump Administration.

Cato Think Tanker Opening Up a Restaurant

In the revolving door of think tank land, most think tankers end up leaving their think tank to enter a new Administration, or to go into the corporate world, or academia.

But one scholar from the libertarian think tank Cato Institute has taken a different route: He is opening up a restaurant.  That scholar is Justin Logan, the former Director of Foreign Policy Studies at Cato, who is in the process of opening up a Latin American wine and spirits bar called Ruta del Vino in the Petworth neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Mr. Logan is opening up the restaurant with his wife Jessica, who worked as an accountant at Cato.

Although opening a restaurant is not the typical route for a think tanker, Mr. Logan will have knowledge and access to Cato's broad writings on the food/restaurant industry, including the think tank's latest work on the "futile effort" of menu mandates and obesity.