Thunder on the Right

Not the least of the Heritage Foundation's appeal to President Reagan is that its analysts have mastered the scholarly equivalent of the famous memo style he requires of his own staff members: short, uncomplicated and easy to read. Except for occasional Government-wide surveys like last week's Mandate for Leadership II, Heritage writers are guided by the rule of thumb practiced by Edwin J. Feulner Jr., the foundation's president and cofounder. Says he: "If the Heritage study is thin enough to make it into a Congressman's briefcase, half the battle is won."

Started in 1973 by Feulner and Paul Weyrich, who now heads a conservative political-action committee, Heritage is currently the hot shop in the public policy industry. In contrast with the liberal Brookings Institution and conservative American Enterprise Institute, which encourage scholars to produce thoroughgoing reports at their own pace, Heritage expects its researchers to study topical questions, work on tight deadlines and strive to get their results noticed or, better yet, acted upon. New studies are hand-delivered to every Cabinet officer and member of Congress. The names and specialties of 1,500 congressional aides, 700 Executive Branch staffers and 3,000 journalists are stored in Heritage's computer, so that reports and press releases can be targeted to opinion leaders in various fields. So far this year, Heritage has churned out 219 publications in its basement printing plant. Says Burton Yale Pines, director of research: "We want to ensure, in this war of ideas going on, that conservatives are represented."

The Reagan Administration was quick to recognize the foundation as a fertile source of intellectual support, putting about two dozen Heritage staffers on transition teams in 1980. After a Heritage study concluded that the United Nations' law of the sea treaty ran against U.S. interests, the President canceled U.S. plans to approve the pact, which has been signed by more than 125 nations. When Foundation Scholar Stuart Butler adapted a British notion in a proposal for inner-city enterprise zones, both Reagan and Conservative Congressman Jack Kemp enthusiastically backed the idea. The Administration also accepted Heritage recommendations favoring the accelerated leasing of federal lands for energy development. Altogether, of some 1,300 specific proposals urged on the President early in his first term by Heritage, Feulner claims that more than 60% have won favorable action.

Heritage was founded with a grant of $250,000 from Joseph Coors, the Colorado brewing magnate and backer of conservative causes. Today it receives about a third of its $ 10 million annual budget from foundations, many of them begun by ideological sympathizers like Pittsburgh Moneyman Richard Mellon Scaife and Industrialist John Olin. Another third is contributed by business corporations, though Heritage's rigid opposition to Government regulation and protectionism has angered executives of some major corporations that profit from such measures. The final third comes from 130,000 individual donors.

Researchers at the more traditional think tanks sometimes speak disdainfully of Heritage's emphasis on lobbying and publicity. Feulner admits that the more deliberative institutions produce most of the genuinely original research in public policymaking. Says he: "We're secondhand dealers in ideas." Yet even liberals in Washington acknowledge, sometimes ruefully, that Heritage's mostly young analysts (the staff of 105 includes 53 professionals) are extremely effective at getting across their point of view. "That feisty new kid on the conservative block" is the kudo offered by one Heritage fan. His name: Ronald Reagan.