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RECIPIENT PROFILEFree Congress Foundation, Inc.Washington, DC 20002 [From NCRP, The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations] The Free Congress Research and Education Foundation describes itself in its 1995 annual report as a "non-partisan, non-profit, tax-exempt research and education institution dedicated to conservative governance, traditional values and institutional reform." Led by Paul Weyrich, who also co-founded the Heritage Foundation, Free Congress received $5.0 million in grants over the 1992-1994 period to assist it in its efforts "to return to our nation's origins in limited government and personal liberty, despite the overweening power of the leviathan state." One of Free Congress' major (and now independent) programs is National Empowerment Television, a nation-wide, interactive, 24-hour television network described in 1992 by political commentator David Gergen as "the creation of a new politics in America" for its ability to mobilize and interact with core constituencies on issues ranging from immigration to tax policy to welfare reform. The organization claims that NET now carries "its message of cultural conservatism and anti-Establishment politics into more than 11 million homes. Weekly offerings include Borderline, a forum for discussion of conservative views on immigration policy; the Cato Forum, which provides the Cato Institute with an on-going opportunity to promote its beliefs concerning the illegitimacy of taxes and government regulation; Legal Notebook, providing discussion and perspectives by legal analysts on crime in america; Straight Talk, produced in conjunction with the right-wing Family Research Council; and On Target With the National Rifle Association. Special series and programs currently under development include Science Under Siege, co-produced with the Competitive Enterprise Institute (dedicated to the dissemination of what it calls "free market scholarship" in support of such issues as utility deregulation and the repeal of mandated fuel economy standards), and Ways and means, a monthly hour-long show to inform core constituencies about important public policy debates and what viewers can do to take action. Free Congress president Paul Weyrich said that, in his 25 years of conservative political activism, NET is the most exciting thing he has done, stressing the communication benefits that accrue from conservative-controlled media. "In any kind of battle," Weyrich stated, "communication is number one. So at last we have a tool that is extraordinary in its ability to interest people, to get them motivated."" Another major Free Congress program, the Krieble Institute, is now adding to Free Congress' mobilization capacities. Formerly focused on communist bloc countries, the Institute initiated a grassroots political training program in 1995 to take advantage of the "conservative revolution" at home. Teaming up with the Congress' Center for Conservative Governance, it launched a series of satellite conferences to develop conservative leadership at the grassroots level, training 1066 individuals in its first-round efforts. Conference curricula included how to manage the media, frame issues, raise funds, and use technology in the campaign process. [From James D'Entremont; his web site] In 1974, a year after Paul Weyrich had founded the Heritage Foundation with seed money from Colorado brewer Joseph Coors, he launched the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (CSFC) with additional backing from the Coors fortune. (The friendship between Coors and Weyrich had begun when Weyrich was an aide to conservative Senator Gordon Allot of Colorado.) The purpose of the CSFC was to influence the electoral process through fundraising schemes, circulation of propaganda, recruitment of conservative candidates, and grassroots organizing. Out of the CSFC grew the Free Congress Foundation, which has branched out into lobbying for conservative judicial appointments, communications schemes like "National Empowerment Television," and efforts to defeat gay rights initiatives. Weyrich, a member of the extreme Catholic right and a professed admirer of the pro-Nazi demagogue Father Coughlin, has founded or cofounded numerous right-wing organizations, including the Moral Majority. The Weyrich juggernaut played a decisive role in the ascendancy of Newt Gingrich and the right-wing Republicans of the 104th Congress. Among its top ten "Censored News stories of 1994," Project Censored cites the press's lack of coverage of the political machinations of Weyrich's Council for National Policy, a secretive high-level strategy-formulating organization whose membership is a Who's Who of the far right. Admitting that he and his colleagues are not conservatives in the traditional sense, he has described the New Right as "radicals who want to change the existing power structure." Weyrich was one of the earliest commentators to advance the idea that the United States is engulfed in a cultural civil war. "It may not be with bullets, and it may not be with rockets and missiles, but it is a war, nonetheless. It is a war of ideology, it's a war of ideas, it's a war about our way of life. And it has to be fought with the same intensity, I think, and dedication as you would fight a shooting war." Free Congress Research and Education Foundation received $1.312 million from the Carthage Foundation (a Scaife family foundation) for general operating support in 1992 and $450,000 from the Bradley Foundation in 1994; it was founded with seed money from the Coors brewery fortune. Free Congress is a mult-issue organization, and Weyrich is one of the political gurus of the conservative movement... [From Buying a Movement] Sponsors National Empowerment Television (NET TV), the ultraconservative cable network. NET TV received $300,000 from the Scaife Family Foundation in 1992 and more than $40,000 from the Bradley foundation in the same year. [From The Feeding Trough] Free Congress sponsors its own satellite network, National Empowerment Television, or NET TV. NET TV (channel 30 in Milwaukee) helps give a national audience to groups like the Christian Coalition, the National Rifle Association and Phyllis Shlafley's Eagle Forum. NET TV helped torpedo the Lani Guinier nomination. As head of this group, Robert Billings along with Weyrich engineered the formation of the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell as its head. According to investigative reporter Russ Bellant, the Free Congress distributes "virulently homophobic literature."
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27,436,960 to the Free Congress Foundation, Inc.
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