Ethics and Public Policy Center

The Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC, "is one of several [organizations] devoted to improving public appreciation of the role of business in what it terms a 'moral society.' It was founded by Ernest Lefever, who expressed his concern that 'U.S. domestic and multinational firms find themselves increasingly under siege at home and abroad. They are accused of producing shoddy and unsafe products, fouling the environment, robbing future generations, wielding enormous power, repressing peoples in the third world, and generally being insensitive to human needs. We as a small and ethnically oriented center are in a position to respond more directly to ideological critics who insist the corporation is fundamentally unjust.'"

According to the EPPC website the organisation was "established in 1976 to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy issues." 

Tom Barry has this to say about EPPC:
 * Created in 1976, EPPC was the first neocon institute to break ground in the frontal attack on the secular humanists. For nearly three decades, EPPC has functioned as the cutting edge of the neoconservative-driven culture war against progressive theology and secularism, and the associated effort to ensure right-wing control of the Republican Party. It explicitly sought to unify the Christian right with the neoconservative religious right, which was mostly made up of agnostics back then. A central part of its political project was to "clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo-Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy." Directed by Elliott Abrams from 1996-2001, EPPC counts among its board members well connected figures in the neocon matrix including Jeane Kirkpatrick, Richard Neuhaus, and Mary Ann Glendon. &mdash;Tom Barry, op. cit.

Board of Directors

 * William R. Burleigh (Chairman, E.W. Scripps Company), Chairman
 * Robert P. George (McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, professor of politics, and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University), Vice Chairman
 * KennethE. Bickford (Managing Partner, Roseline Development), Director
 * Eric Cohen (Executive Director, Tikvah Fund; former senior consultant on the President's Council on Bioethics; Fellow, New America Foundation; and Editor-At-Large, The New Atlantis), Director
 * Joseph D. Decosimo (Managing Partner, Decosimo business consulting and accounting firm), Director
 * Amy A. Kass (Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute), Director
 * Frank A. Orban, III (deKieffer & Horgan law firm), Director

Former Directors and Personnel

 * Jeane Kirkpatrick (1926-2006) – Chairwoman
 * Elliott Abrams – former President
 * Hillel Fradkin – President
 * Michael Cromartie – Acting Director
 * Ernest W. Lefever – Senior Scholar, Founder and first president

Officers, Fellows and Scholars

 * Ed Whelan, President
 * Michael Cromartie, Vice President
 * Brian Walsh, Executive Director, American Religious Freedom
 * Brooke Cook, Program Coordinator, American Religious Freedom


 * Hadley Arkes, Senior Fellow
 * Jeffrey Bell, Visiting Fellow
 * James Capretta, Fellow
 * Eric Cohen, Adjunct Fellow
 * Mary Rice Hasson, Fellow
 * Adam Keiper, Fellow and Editor, The New Atlantis
 * Stanley Kurtz, Senior Fellow
 * Yuval Levin, Hertog Fellow
 * Wilfred M. McClay, Senior Fellow
 * John Mueller, The Lehrman Institute Fellow in Economics
 * Caitrin Nicol, Managing Editor, The New Atlantis
 * Herbert Schlossberg, Fellow
 * Ari Schulman, Senior Editor, The New Atlantis
 * Carter Snead, Fellow
 * Algis Valiunas, Fellow
 * George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow, William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies
 * Stephen P. White, Fellow


 * James Bowman, Resident Scholar

Former Fellows and Scholars

 * Ernest W. Lefever, Former Fellow (In Memoriam, 1919-2009)
 * Christine Rosen, Former Fellow
 * Timothy Samuel Shah, Former Director South Asian Studies Program, Research Fellow
 * Wilfred M. McClay, Former Senior Fellow and co-director of the Evangelicals and Civic Life program
 * Rick Santorum, Former Senior Fellow and Director of EPPC's America's Enemies program.

Funding
Between 1985 and 2001, the Center has received $9,190,704 in 114 separate grants from only eight foundations:


 * Castle Rock Foundation
 * Earhart Foundation
 * Koch Family Foundations (Claude R. Lambe Foundation)
 * John M. Olin Foundation, Inc.
 * Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
 * Between 2001 and 2010, the Ethics and Public Policy Center received almost $3 million from the conservative Bradley Foundation.
 * Scaife Foundations (Sarah Mellon Scaife, Carthage)
 * Smith Richardson Foundation

EPPC has also received three grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts:
 * In December $925,000.00 over 3 yrs was granted to support "a seminar series for journalists on the role of religion in American public life."
 * in September 1999, $1,350,000.00 over 3 yrs was granted "to examine the role of Evangelicals in American public life."
 * in December 2001, $430,000.00 over 2 yrs was granted to "strengthen the national media's reporting on the impact of religious conviction and religiously grounded moral argument in American political and public life."

Other SourceWatch Resources

 * Think tanks

Contact
We: http://www.eppc.org