Apr 19, 2021

Greetings from Washington, where we are casting our eyes to Georgia and the wildly misleading claims about its election reforms. Here in the nation’s capital, meanwhile, the left is angling to pack the Supreme Court with four more justices and the Senate with two more senators. We explain the problems with both efforts. We also urge the United States to lead an international effort to stop the 2022 Winter Olympics from being held in communist China.

Debunking the Left’s Lies About Georgia’s Election Integrity Law
Talk about gaslighting the country. Based on the over-the-top reactions from President Joe Biden, CEOs, the media, and others, you’d think Georgia has regressed to Jim Crow-era voter suppression with its election reforms. “That’s not what’s happening in Georgia or other states pursuing election reforms. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” says Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James in a new 30-second ad. Heritage recommendations helped shape the Georgia law. Now, in partnership with Heritage Action, we’re actively debunking the myths peddled by the left. Learn the truth about what the law does and does not do. And watch a new Heritage Action ad that’s running in Georgia to set the record straight.

Biden Toys With Packing the Supreme Court
President Joe Biden signed an executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States. Heritage senior legal fellow Thomas Jipping says the commission and the members chosen raise serious questions about its real purpose. Couple that with the announcement of a Democrat-backed bill that would pack the court with four more justices, and it looks even worse. “The only reason to expand the court is to create new vacancies that Biden could quickly fill to change how the court decides cases,” Jipping writes in his latest commentary. Read Jipping’s full commentary to find out who’s on the commission and why they raise concerns. 

China Has No Business Hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics
Beijing is slated to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. But as the seat of power for a country with an increasingly horrific track record of human rights violations, that’s a privilege Beijing simply doesn’t deserve. “While the International Olympic Committee claims that it is not a political organization, its decision to select China as host country was a political one—one that put the rights of people inside the host country behind the privileges of the government slated to host the event,” writes Heritage senior policy analyst Olivia Enos. Read Enos’ latest report to learn how the U.S. can take the lead in effectively opposing China’s hosting of the Olympics.

Dems Push DC Statehood, Despite What the Constitution Says
The left wants a newly renamed Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, to be a state for one simple reason: It would pad their Senate majority by adding two new reliably left-wing senators. And they have a new bill—H.R. 51—that would make it happen. But the founders wanted our nation’s capital to be a federal district, existing beyond the confines or influence of any one state. “What this bill and its advocates ignore,” writes Heritage legal fellow Zack Smith, “is that Congress doesn’t have the power to do that.” Read Smith’s full commentary to find out why this bill is unconstitutional and why D.C. statehood would be a disaster.

Heritage hosted a timely and important discussion with Sen. Rand Paul on states’ efforts on election reform and an update on HR 1, the “For the People Act,” which just passed the House and has a looming vote in the Senate. Watch the video.

Iowa recently enacted a series of election integrity reforms recommended by The Heritage Foundation. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law last month. Learn more about what the reforms entail.

The Heritage Foundation’s Young Leaders Program completed another session of The Academy, an online program for rising leaders. The class of 138 participants brings the total number of individuals who have graduated from The Academy to 426 during the past year. Learn more.

Monday at 11 a.m., Heritage will host an event on new tools for new threats, and how we can strengthen U.S. intelligence capabilities. The featured speaker will be John Ratcliffe, former director of national intelligence. Register for the event here.

Monday at 2 p.m., Heritage will host an event discussing how conservatives must lead in solving Americans’ health care problems. Featured speakers include Jim Banks, member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Dean Clancy, senior health policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity; John C. Goodman, president at Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research; Dan Ziegler, executive director for the Republican Study Committee; and Doug Badger, a visiting fellow in Heritage’s Domestic Policy Studies. Register for the event here.

Friday at noon, Heritage will host an event on U.S. intelligence and how it adapts to a rapidly changing national security landscape. Featured speakers include Steve Cambone, associate vice chancellor for cybersecurity initiatives and professor of practice at Texas A&M University; Gary Ross, associate professor of the practice at Texas A&M; and David Shedd, a Heritage visiting fellow, and Jay Silveria, executive director at the Bush School of Government. Register for the event here.

This week on “Heritage Explains,” Olivia Enos, a senior policy analyst in Heritage’s Asian Studies Center, explains what the Biden administration should do to stop China from hosting the 2022 Olympics. Listen to the episode.

The Border Is on Fire—We Need to Secure It
Heritage visiting fellow Chad Wolf joined “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Fox News to talk about the border crisis, and the Biden administration's possible plan to send cash payments to Central Americans to stop them from coming to the U.S. Watch the interview.

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