So, the Opportunity Solutions Project’s name sounds great. It’s got opportunity and solutions. Also, Americans love a good project.
But the benign-sounding group is the Florida-based lobbying arm of the Foundation for Government Accountability, or FGA, a large conservative think tank.
Last year the Opportunity Solutions Project lobbied hard In Iowa and elsewhere to ease restrictions on child labor. They’ve also worked to pass legislation making it tougher to get unemployment benefits and food assistance. The project and FGA have crisscrossed the nation fighting Medicaid health coverage expansion and shredding safety net programs.
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FGA designated Iowa as a “super state,” where its conservative policy objectives can get approved. So, we’re a super state with the “Freedom to Flourish.” Heady stuff.
Opportunity Solutions now has two lobbyists under Iowa’s Golden Dome of Wisdom. And they’ve got plenty of work to do pushing the organization’s agenda.
Among Iowa bills the project is supporting is ending the gender balance requirement for state boards and commissions, adding two Republican politicians as non-voting members of the Board of Regents, while altering university presidential hiring procedures, and another placing strict limits on university equity and inclusion programs while emphasizing “intellectual” and “philosophical” diversity over racial, gender and LGBTQ diversity.
The real discrimination on campus is against conservatives.
Other bills supported by Opportunity Solutions Project include a bill make non-partisan local elections partisan, another bill that would bar undocumented immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at state universities and legislation that would allow businesses to ask for relief from state regulations from a 13-member panel with four non-voting lawmakers and nine slots filled by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Will they get relief? Oh, the suspense.
Opportunity Solutions also backs Gov. Kim Reynolds’ original plan for dismantling Area Education Agency services. How many of these bills will live through this week’s funnel deadline? We’ll soon find out.
The FGA, which raised $10.6 million in 2020, is mostly bankrolled by a list of conservative groups and a couple rich guys. The Uihlein Family Foundation, headed by Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, donated $3 million to FGA in 2020. That’s a lot of packing tape and bubble wrap sold by the family business, Uline.
Leonard Leo, who leads the “85 Fund: donated $2 million.
Uihlein is an election denier who funded efforts across the county to improve “election integrity.” Leo drew up the list of judges Trump picked from to fill Supreme Court seats and other position on the federal bench.
FGA touts what’s called “IKEA advocacy.” FGA and Opportunity Solutions will draw up policy proposals for state lawmakers and governors, while also providing research and lobbyists to help get its policies passed. Then the groups lend a helping hand during the administrative rules process.
Everything you need comes in a single box. A big Uline box.
What do Iowans want? Who cares. They don’t have the money, connections or clout to make it happen. We have the opportunity to take their solutions or shut up.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
www.thegazette.com
But the benign-sounding group is the Florida-based lobbying arm of the Foundation for Government Accountability, or FGA, a large conservative think tank.
Last year the Opportunity Solutions Project lobbied hard In Iowa and elsewhere to ease restrictions on child labor. They’ve also worked to pass legislation making it tougher to get unemployment benefits and food assistance. The project and FGA have crisscrossed the nation fighting Medicaid health coverage expansion and shredding safety net programs.
ADVERTISING
FGA designated Iowa as a “super state,” where its conservative policy objectives can get approved. So, we’re a super state with the “Freedom to Flourish.” Heady stuff.
Opportunity Solutions now has two lobbyists under Iowa’s Golden Dome of Wisdom. And they’ve got plenty of work to do pushing the organization’s agenda.
Among Iowa bills the project is supporting is ending the gender balance requirement for state boards and commissions, adding two Republican politicians as non-voting members of the Board of Regents, while altering university presidential hiring procedures, and another placing strict limits on university equity and inclusion programs while emphasizing “intellectual” and “philosophical” diversity over racial, gender and LGBTQ diversity.
The real discrimination on campus is against conservatives.
Other bills supported by Opportunity Solutions Project include a bill make non-partisan local elections partisan, another bill that would bar undocumented immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at state universities and legislation that would allow businesses to ask for relief from state regulations from a 13-member panel with four non-voting lawmakers and nine slots filled by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Will they get relief? Oh, the suspense.
Opportunity Solutions also backs Gov. Kim Reynolds’ original plan for dismantling Area Education Agency services. How many of these bills will live through this week’s funnel deadline? We’ll soon find out.
The FGA, which raised $10.6 million in 2020, is mostly bankrolled by a list of conservative groups and a couple rich guys. The Uihlein Family Foundation, headed by Elizabeth and Richard Uihlein, donated $3 million to FGA in 2020. That’s a lot of packing tape and bubble wrap sold by the family business, Uline.
Leonard Leo, who leads the “85 Fund: donated $2 million.
Uihlein is an election denier who funded efforts across the county to improve “election integrity.” Leo drew up the list of judges Trump picked from to fill Supreme Court seats and other position on the federal bench.
FGA touts what’s called “IKEA advocacy.” FGA and Opportunity Solutions will draw up policy proposals for state lawmakers and governors, while also providing research and lobbyists to help get its policies passed. Then the groups lend a helping hand during the administrative rules process.
Everything you need comes in a single box. A big Uline box.
What do Iowans want? Who cares. They don’t have the money, connections or clout to make it happen. We have the opportunity to take their solutions or shut up.
(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com
Opinion: Florida think tank shines on our ‘super state’
The Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. (Nick Rohlman/The Gazette) So, the Opportunity Solutions …
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