There’s a new conservative think tank in town, and it’s EPIC.
That is: the Economic Policy Innovation Center, founded last year by Paul Winfree, a former Heritage Foundation economist, Senate Budget Committee staffer and White House budget policy director during Donald Trump’s administration.
EPIC may sound a bit too daring to describe a think tank that promotes traditional conservative fiscal positions like lower taxes, reduced deficit spending and cutting federal regulations via “original research to inform practical policy solutions.”
But the group’s executive vice president, Brittany Madni, points to a framed poster in her office. It’s a painted still-life of flowers that the artist has then written over in thick, hot-pink brush strokes, “DO EPIC S—”.
“It’s kind of our vibe,” she said. “Like, I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you and pretend like we aren’t nerds, but I like to think that we’re nerds that can hang.”
For Madni, Winfree and their small team of wonks, the poster’s exhortation means focusing their attention on the inner workings of Capitol Hill, engaging in the kind of research and training they say other think tanks have abandoned in recent years to focus more on partisan politics.
The group has enjoyed some quiet success already, hosting events for members of Congress and their aides that range from weekend retreats to hour-long educational seminars. Since starting EPIC, Winfree has also been a frequent guest on the Hill, speaking at Republican policy luncheons and testifying at congressional hearings.
For this story, Winfree was able to solicit glowing quotes from Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, and Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Eric Schmitt of Missouri — suggesting that they at least have the ear of some high-ranking conservatives on the Hill.
“It is no secret that the budget process in Washington is broken — and to fix it, Congress will rely upon the invaluable counsel and insights of trusted partners like EPIC,” Johnson wrote in the statement Winfree passed along. “As Republicans prepare for a budget reconciliation opportunity, EPIC will be an important resource for anyone trying to reacquaint themselves with this complex legislative process.”
But despite this apparent clout with GOP bigwigs, EPIC hasn’t yet caught the eye of some competitors.
An executive at a competing conservative think tank focused on economic policy said she hadn’t heard of EPIC before Roll Call contacted her. “To the extent that they [are] putting out white papers and for the love of the game, great,” she said, requesting anonymity to speak frankly. “But if they want to have influence, I’m not really sure that has happened yet.”
Jon Schweppe, policy director at American Principles Project, also said he hadn’t heard of EPIC, as did E.J. Fagan, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author of a recent book on the role think tanks play in Washington. Other conservative think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation, ignored or declined requests for comment.
That low profile among the intelligentsia is partially on purpose, said Winfree. EPIC is focused squarely on the nitty-gritty of policymaking, not electoral politics or the philosophical question of whether conservatives should embrace populism or return to more traditional, pro-business positions. (EPIC falls decidedly in the latter camp, although Winfree says his group has little interest in wading into that debate.)
“Many of the major institutions that have played big roles within conservative policymaking have taken a step back from direct engagement with the Hill,” he said. “That’s either taken the form of work that they’re doing at the grassroots level, or outside of Washington, D.C., to try to affect politics downstream, or it’s folks who see themselves as … public intellectuals.”
Winfree’s former employer has arguably made that shift. One of the last things Winfree did at Heritage was help pen a section of its controversial Project 2025 policy roadmap for the next GOP administration. That section raised the idea of effectively eliminating the Federal Reserve.
Even though he’s named as its author, Winfree distanced himself from the chapter, saying he merely synthesized the views of a large panel of conservative thinkers. “I do think the Fed should be reformed,” he said. “But I would not subscribe to the idea of nuking the Fed.”
Schweppe questioned how much EPIC, or any think tank, could successfully focus on policy while ignoring politics. “I don’t think conservatives have abandoned fiscal conservatism,” he said. “It’s just we recognize that there are other issues that, number one, are more pressing in the minds of the American people, and, number two, are politically a little bit more salient.”
“If you really want to get politicians to start taking you seriously — not just thinking your issues are an existential problem, but start communicating on them in the campaign — it’s impossible to do it divorced from politics,” Schweppe added.
Winfree touts EPIC’s “proactive” policy research, like oversight on how funds from President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response package have been used. He also points to materials it has produced explaining the “Byrd rule,” a section of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that requires reconciliation bills to stick to budgetary issues. Senators who master the Byrd rule can wield it like a scalpel to cut out bits of bills they oppose on procedural grounds, which makes it a generally useful tool for lawmakers who don’t like parts of the filibuster-proof packages.
Given the Hill’s relatively fast rate of staff turnover, there’s a real need — on both sides of the aisle — for this kind of education, said Fagan.
“There’s definitely demand for these services out there,” he said. “Policymakers and especially partisans are underserviced.”
Other think tanks used to host similar educational events but stopped in recent years, and EPIC is simply filling the void, Winfree argued. He declined to disclose the identity of its donors, but said funding so far came from private donations, with most from charitable foundations and none from government or corporate sources, which allows the group to “stay true to mission without getting tied up in unnecessary conflicts.”
Whether EPIC will have a significant impact, Fagan said, ultimately depends on whether Winfree is right — that there really is unmet demand among GOP lawmakers for policymaking substance. There are already groups like R Street Institute, the Tax Foundation and others supplying Republicans with ideas from similar perspectives.
Moreover, the current crop of Republican lawmakers seems less interested in making the proverbial sausage, according to Fagan. “The question is whether or not there’s a market for it, [or] rather whether they can make that [market] happen,” he said, noting how unproductive Congress has been lately, measured by the number of laws passed.
The post With an epic name, this conservative think tank sees opening appeared first on Roll Call.
