Foundation for Government Accountability

Foundation for Government Accountability
Basic facts
Location:	Florida
Type:	501(c)(3)
Affiliation:	Nonpartisan
Top official:	Tarren Bragdon
Founder(s):	Tarren Bragdon
Year founded:	2011
Website:	Official website

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group based in Florida that describes itself as "a powerhouse for policy wins in the areas of welfare, unemployment, workforce, election integrity, and health care." According to the FGA's 2023 Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax, or 990 form, "The foundation's mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of transparency, the free market, individual freedom, and limited constitutional government."

The FGA was founded in 2011 and as of June 2025, has more than 45 employees, has more than 50 liaisons in 30 states, and partners with more than 450 policymakers nationally.

Background

The Foundation for Government Accountability was founded in 2011 by Tarren Bragdon. Before starting the foundation, Bragdon was the chief executive officer at the Maine Heritage Policy Center and a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives. As of June 2025 the foundation's website described itself as "a powerhouse for policy wins in the areas of welfare, unemployment, workforce, election integrity, and health care," that "employs more than 45 marketing, research, and outreach experts with more than 50 on-the-ground liaisons in 30 states, and partners with more than 450 policymakers across the country."

As of June 2025, the FGA listed the following issues on their website:

• "Promoting Reemployment and Safeguarding Benefits"
• "Ensuring Fair and Transparent Elections"
• "Education Reform"
• "Increasing Government Transparency and Accountability"
• "Securing our Cities and Streets"
• "Reforming Labor Regulations"
• "Promoting Work Over Welfare"
• "Rejecting the Radical Remake of America"
• "Unleashing Tax Relief for All Americans"

As of June 2025, the FGA's website said, "Because of our work, Americans nationwide are pursuing new opportunities. The single mother is finally finding flexible work to meet her unique schedule. The individual trapped in generational dependency is trading in government checks for paychecks, modeling success for his children. The recent high school graduate is enrolling in a new apprenticeship program instead of taking out tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt for a degree he won’t use. The voter who stayed home during the last election is preparing to show up to the ballot box, confident that his voice will be heard with new election integrity measures in place."

To read more about each of the Foundation for Government Accountability's policy areas, see the Our Issues tab on their website

Leadership

As of June 2025, Tarren Bragdon is the organization's President and Chief Executive Officer.

According to the Foundation for Government Accountability's website, the following individuals were on the organization's staff as of June 2025.

• Tarren Bragdon, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Jonathan Bechtle, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel
• Jonathan Ingram, Vice President of Policy and Research
• Katie Rodgers, Vice President of Outreach and Government Affairs
• Nick Stehle, Vice President of Communications
• Gregg Pfister, Senior Director of State Affairs

Work and activities

Legislative priorities

According to the Foundation for Government Accountability 2023 report, the foundation focused on two federal legislative priorities in 2023: "a federal work requirement for all welfare programs and the Regulations in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act."

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-related policies

• SNAP restrictions for unhealthy foods
  • In January 2025, the Foundation for Government Accountability released a memo advising states to "stop taxpayer-funded junk food." According to NPR, as of April 2025, at least 14 states had considered legislation to restrict SNAP benefits on certain foods, such as candy. Two states -- Idaho and Utah -- passed such legislation. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed a bill that would have prohibited "enrollees in the supplemental nutrition assistance program from purchasing Soda using program benefits."
• SNAP work requirements
  • According to The Washington Post, the Foundation for Government Accountability helped draft model legislation for the Kansas House Bill No. 2258 (2015), also known as the HOPE ACT. Then-governor Sam Brownback (R) signed into law in April 2015. According to NPR, the law "limited how long people can access cash assistance, added work requirements to SNAP, and banned the state from spending federal or state funds to promote public aid."
  • In 2018, The Washington Post reported that HOPE Act legislation had been introduced in 16 states, passing in Kansas, Mississippi and Wisconsin. The Washington Post also reported that according to the foundation, elements of the bill had been adopted in 28 states.
  • Also in 2018, then U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) appeared in an FGA video titled, "Work is the Better Way." That same year U.S. House Republicans cited FGA research, including a 2016 analysis from Kansas, in support of a farm bill that would have included changes to SNAP work requirements. The Washington Post's Caitlin Dewey wrote, "The bill ultimately failed because of unrelated GOP struggles over immigration. But political observers said the inclusion of proposed changes to food stamps was testimony to the FGA’s growing influence in key Republican circles."
  • In 2019, the Trump administration finalized a rule implementing work requirements.

REINS

• Coalition Letter
  • In March 2023, FGA President and CEO Tarren Bragdon and representatives for more than 30 other groups sent a letter to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (California) (R) and then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) criticizing the Biden Administration's policies on Medicaid, SNAP, climate change, and student loans and asking Congress to pass the REINS Act. The letter stated, "Regulations can impose costs and raise prices, operating like a hidden tax on the public. The current administration has tried to use regulation to conceal excessive federal spending, but runaway inflation has family budgets stretched to the breaking point. Americans are now paying the price for President Biden’s regulatory spending spree, and the REINS Act is the solution."

Other legislation

• Arkansas House Bill 1410
  • On March 7, 2023, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed House Bill 1410, which created the Youth Hiring Act of 2023 and eliminated the state's requirement for children under the age of 16 to get an employment certificate or show proof of age in order to work. According to The Washington Post, the bill's sponsor Rebecca Burkes (R) said that the bill "came to me from the Foundation [for] Government Accountability." According to The Washington Post, the FGA also helped draft a similar bill in Missouri.

Election policy

According to their website, the Foundation for Government Accountability supports policies "Ensuring Fair and Transparent Elections." According to The Guardian, the FGA began to focus on this policy area in 2021. That same year, the FGA launched its Center for Excellence in Polling, which conducts "market research and messaging analysis to inform policymakers and the public about voters’ opinions, attitudes, and concerns on critical public policy issues."

• Supermajority requirements for ballot measures
  • According to The Guardian, Foundation for Government Accountability supported efforts in four states to raise the vote threshold needed to pass citizen initiatives from simple majorities to supermajorities. The four states included Ohio, Missouri, South Dakota and Arkansas.
  • The Arkansas, Ohio, and South Dakota legislatures all referred measures to increase ballot measure vote thresholds from simple majorities to 60% supermajorities. Voters defeated all three amendments.
  • In 2023, the Missouri House of Representatives passed legislation to put an amendment to raise the vote threshold for citizen initiatives, but the bill did not pass in the Senate.

Amicus brief activity

• In 2022, the Foundation for Government Accountability filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice alleging that the DOJ had failed to comply with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by not responding to a request to provide documents related to President Joe Biden’s (D) Executive Order (EO) 14019, titled “Promoting Access to Voting.” The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on April 20, 2022.
• In 2023, the Foundation for Government Accountability filed an amicus brief in Biden v. Nebraska arguing that President Joe Biden's (D) student debt cancellation plan was unfair to people who did not attend college and future borrowers. On June 30, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the HEROES Act did not authorize the secretary of education to enact the student debt cancellation plan.
• In 2023, the FGA filed an amicus brief in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the administrative law principle Chevron deference. On June 28, 2024, the court ruled 6-2 to overrule the 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, holding that federal courts may not defer to an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute.

Affliations

The Foundation for Government Accountability operates an affiliate 501(c)(4) FGA Action, formerly known as the Opportunity Solutions Project.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of the Foundation for Government Accountability's revenues and expenses from 2011 to 2023. The information comes from the IRS

Foundation for Government Accountability financial data 2010-2023

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2011	$210,000	$150,000
2012	$730,000	$730,000
2013	$2.0 million	$1.4 million
2014	$4.1 million	$3.9 million
2015	$3.9 million	$3.7 million
2016	$4.5 million	$4.0 million
2017	$6.7 million	$5.9 million
2018	$9.4 million	$7.9 million
2019	$10 million	$7.8 million
2020	$10.8 million	$8.9 million
2021	$13.2 million	$10.9 million
2022	$14 million	$12.2 million
2023	$16 million	$15.2 million

See also

• 501(c)(3)

External links

• Foundation for Government Accountability official website
• Foundation for Government Accountability on Facebook
• Foundation for Government Accountability on X
• Foundation for Government Accountability on Instagram
• Foundation for Government Accountability on YouTube
• Foundation for Government Accountability on TruthSocial

Footnotes