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Competitive Enterprise Institute
| Competitive Enterprise Institute | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Washington, D.C. |
| Type: | 501(c)(3) |
| Top official: | Gregory Conko, Executive director |
| Founder(s): | Fred L. Smith, Jr. |
| Year founded: | 1984 |
| Website: | Official website |
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Washington, D.C. The libertarian think tank advocates free enterprise and limited government.
Mission
According to the organization's 2014 tax filings, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's mission statement is:[1]
| “ | CEI is a non-profit public policy organization dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. We believe that consumers are best helped not by government regulation but by being allowed to make their own choices in a free market place.[2] | ” |
Background
The Competitive Enterprise Institute was founded in 1984 by Fred L. Smith, Jr. Smith is a former policy analyst with the Environmental Protection Agency and worked as the director of government relations for the Council for a Competitive Economy. He served as CEI's president from 1984 until 2013.[3] The organization, according to its website, aims to "make the uncompromising case for economic freedom because we believe it is essential for entrepreneurship, innovation, and prosperity to flourish."[4]
Work
The Competitive Enterprise Institute conducts research and produces policy papers on a range of issues related to free enterprise and limited government.[4]
Issue areas
The website for the CEI lists the following issues as areas of focus for the organization:[5]
- Banking and Finance
- Business and Government
- Center for Advancing Capitalism
- Energy and Environment
- Health and Safety
- Human Achievement Hour
- Labor and Employment
- Law and Constitution
- Regulatory Reform
- Risk and Consumer Freedom
- Tech and Telecom
- Trade and International
- Transportation and Infrastructure
Research
Climate change
One of the issues that the CEI has been involved in is that of climate change. The organization does not believe that climate change exists; the group operates a website, GlobalWarming.org, and employs policy analysts in the field to advocate their point of view.[6][7] In 2009, Slate chronicled the organization's relationship to environmental issues, writing that CEI was "one of the first conservative think tanks to go on the offensive on the environment. It attacked the Endangered Species Act and wilderness protection laws for trampling private property rights. By the mid-1990s, it refocused on global warming."[8] CEI believes that scientific consensus on climate change and global warming were politically rather than scientifically motivated. Ebell told PBS, "We believed that the so-called global warming consensus was not based on science, but was a political consensus, which included a number of scientists."[9]
Regulation
- See also: Changes to the Federal Register
As of September 2018, CEI's website posts a weekly highlight of federal agency administrative rules published in the Federal Register.[10]
Litigation
Affordable Care Act lawsuit
- See also: King v. Burwell
The CEI coordinated the 2015 lawsuit King v. Burwell, which challenged the Affordable Care Act. The lawsuit challenged "the legality of an IRS regulation that made federal subsidies available on HealthCare.gov, the federal health insurance exchange, in addition to state-based exchanges explicitly mentioned in the law," according to National Review.[11] The U.S. Supreme Court ruled to maintain the Affordable Care Act as it was written. Writing the opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts concluded, "Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them. If at all possible, we must interpret the Act in a way that is consistent with the former, and avoids the latter."[12]
Leadership
As of July 2016, the executive director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute was Gregory Conko.[13]
According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute's website, the following individuals were members of the organization's board of directors, as of July 2016:[14]
- W. Thomas Haynes, Chairman
- Lawson Bader, Past president
- James R. Curley
- Michael W. Gleba
- Michael S. Greve
- Jean-Claude Gruffat
- Kerry Halferty Hardy
- Fred L. Smith, Jr., Founder
- James R. Von Ehr
- Bill Dunn, Member emeritus
Finances
The following is a breakdown of Competitive Enterprise Institute's revenues and expenses as submitted to the IRS for the 2011 to 2014 fiscal years:
| Annual revenue and expenses for Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2011–2014 | ||
| Tax Year | Total Revenue | Total Expenses |
| 2014[15] | $7,444,817 | $7,356,910 |
| 2013[1] | $7,009,846 | $6,427,052 |
| 2012[16] | $6,344,624 | $7,749,317 |
| 2011[17] | $6,354,832 | $5,385,796 |
Tax status
The Competitive Enterprise Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization. Its 501(c) designation refers to a section of the U.S. federal income tax code concerning charitable, religious, and educational organizations.[18] Section 501(c) of the U.S. tax code has 29 sections that list specific conditions particular organizations must meet in order to be considered tax-exempt under the section. Organizations that have been granted 501(c)(3) status by the Internal Revenue Service are exempt from federal income tax.[19] This exemption requires that any political activity by the charitable organization be nonpartisan in nature.[20]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Competitive Enterprise Institute'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
External links
- Competitive Enterprise Institute website
- Competitive Enterprise Institute on Twitter
- Competitive Enterprise Institute on Facebook
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Guidestar, "Competitive Enterprise Institute IRS Form 990 (2013)," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "Fred L. Smith, Jr.," accessed July 21, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Competitive Enterprise Institute, "About," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "Issues," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Global Warming.org, "GlobalWarming.org," accessed July 8, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "Experts," accessed July 8, 2016
- ↑ Slate, "About Climate Change: Never Mind," June 12, 2009
- ↑ PBS, "Climate of Doubt," accessed July 8, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "This Week in Ridiculous Regulations," September 24, 2018
- ↑ National Review, "Competitive Enterprise Institute Statement on King v. Burwell Decision," June 25, 2015
- ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "King v. Burwell," accessed July 8, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "Staff," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "CEI Board of Directors," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Competitive Enterprise Institute, "Competitive Enterprise Institute IRS Form 990 (2013)," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Guidestar, "Competitive Enterprise Institute IRS Form 990 (2012)," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Guidestar, "Competitive Enterprise Institute IRS Form 990 (2011)," accessed July 7, 2016
- ↑ Internal Revenue Service, "Exempt Purposes - Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)," accessed January 13, 2014
- ↑ Internal Revenue Service, "Life Cycle of a Public Charity/Private Foundation," accessed July 10, 2015
- ↑ Internal Revenue Service, "Exemption Requirements - 501(c)(3) Organizations," accessed January 13, 2014
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