Free Congress Foundation

The Free Congress Foundation (or Free Congress Research and Education Foundation or FCF for short), is a conservative think tank founded by Colorado beer magnate Joseph Coors and led by Paul M. Weyrich. It evolved from the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress and the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation. A group affiliated with the FCF is the Free Congress Political Action Committee. The organization publishes Empowerment!.

According to the organization's website the "Free Congress Foundation is politically conservative, but it is more than that: it is also culturally conservative. Most think tanks talk about tax rates or the environment or welfare policy and occasionally we do also. But our main focus is on the Culture War. Will America return to the culture that made it great, our traditional, Judeo-Christian, Western culture? Or will we continue the long slide into the cultural and moral decay of political correctness? If we do, America, once the greatest nation on earth, will become no less than a third world country."

Board of Directors

 * Board of Directors (circa 2000):


 * R. Daniel McMichael, Director
 * Paul M. Weyrich, President
 * Michael P. Farris, Secretary
 * Hon. Howard H. Callaway, Director
 * Charles A. Moser, Ph. D., Director
 * Hon. William L. Armstrong, Vice Chairman
 * Hon. Mark Neumann, Director
 * Hon. Ralph M. Hall, Chairman
 * Mrs. Kathleen Teague Rothschild, Director
 * Hon. William G. Batchhelder, Director
 * Morton C. Blackwell, Treasurer
 * Jeffrey H. Coors, Director
 * E. Ralph Hostetter, Director

Free Congress Foundation "Centers"

 * Source:


 * Center for Technology Policy
 * Center for Law and Democracy
 * Center for Cultural Conservatism
 * Center for Governance

Projects

 * Coalition for Constitutional Liberties, Steve Lilienthal, Director of the Center for Technology Policy
 * Judicial Selection Monitoring Project, John Nowacki, Director of Legal Policy
 * Next Revolution (coming soon)

Funding
Between 1985 and 2001, the Foundation received 139 grants totalling $22,731,960 from the following sources.


 * Castle Rock Foundation
 * JM Foundation
 * John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 * Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc.
 * Scaife Foundations

In January 1995 Weyrich sent a letter to Steve Parrish the General Counsel and Senior Vice-President External Affairs for Philip Morris to thank him for a $500,000 contribution towards the organisations general operating support. "It goes without saying that we are enormously grateful for your support," Weyrich wrote. 

Contact
Free Congress Foundation 717 Second Street, NE Washington, DC 20002 Phone: 202 546-3000 Fax: 202 543-5605 Web: http://www.freecongress.org

Related SourceWatch articles

 * political action committee
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: The Culture War

Profiles

 * Free Congress Foundation in the dKosopedia.

Articles & Commentary

 * Dana Hoard, Free Congress Foundation's Coalition for Constitutional Liberties: "Recently it was brought to my attention that S.C.A.N. had joined the Free Congress Foundation's Coalition for Constitutional Liberties."
 * Free Congress Foundation, publiceye.org.
 * Paul Weyrich, "letter to Steven Parrish", Bates No 2046563217, January 16 1995.
 * 15 May 2003, "GOP leaders warned to shun agenda of gays", Washington Times. As of 11/14/03 link is no longer working but the story is archived at http://www.gaypasg.org/Press%20Clippings/May%202003/GOP%20leaders%20warned%20to%20shun%20agenda%20of%20gays.htm.