Trim the fat: Despite economic gains under President Trump, the American people are still feeling the pinch from four years of the Biden administration. Chief Economist EJ Antoni believes that cutting more regulations is the key to restoring affordability. 

• “Regulatory costs are often ‘hidden’… But those costs are nonetheless quite large, estimated at over $2 trillion annually. Repealing just some of this burden would quickly provide billions of dollars in relief to families,” writes Antoni. 

Read Antoni’s prescription for a more affordable economy here.  

Homeless: Young families unable to afford a home can blame misguided federal policies for their woes. Massive COVID-19 spending, monetary policy, and roadblocks to construction have created this mess.  

• Research Fellow Preston Brashers and Young Leaders Program member William Duvall explain that “The best thing that the government can do to solve for the lack of affordable housing is to get out of the way.” 

Read more here.  

Losing the forest for the trees: The UN’s recent climate summit pushed cutting fossil fuels but summit attendees have it backward.

• Affordable energy is closely related to “higher incomes, lower extreme poverty, longer life expectancy, and sharp declines in [preventable] deaths,” write Kevin Dayaratna, Ph.D., director of the Center for Data Analysis, and Krishna Mehta, a member of the Young Leaders Program.

Read their piece in RealClearWorld here.

Family matters: Increasingly, Americans are citing ever-rising costs as the main barrier to raising children.  

• “According to data from the 2025 American Family Survey, 71% of participants said it’s not affordable for most people to raise children,” writes Rachel Sheffield, research fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “The last few years especially have increased economic pressure on families.”

Read more here. 

Calling all innovators: Each year, Heritage awards $1 million in prizes to conservative organizations focused on policy solutions. The 2026 Innovation Prizes round is now open for applications.

• The prizes serve the movement and unite conservatives “to provide creative solutions to the most pressing problems facing the country,” says Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts.
• The deadline for applications is Feb. 2. 

Learn more here.

Turn the tide: Mike Howell, visiting fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center, has three specific policy recommendations to help President Trump reach his ambitious deportation goals.

• The first is to focus ICE on immigration enforcement. “President Trump’s DHS is, in effect, continuing the prioritization policy of the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations,” Howell writes.

Read the plan here.

Time for Americans: The H-1B visa program consistently undermines American workers and jobs. Senior Research Fellow Simon Hankinson explains how to reform it.

• “The program should be scaled back to its original intent and scope but revised to account for increased salaries, a changed job market, and AI labor disruption,” writes Hankinson.

Read his op-ed here, and watch the recording of our H-1B event here.

Bad influence: Did you know that Qatar has funneled more than $6 million into American universities just in the past decade?

• Qatar—along with China, Mexico, and Cuba—has “infiltrated U.S. classrooms to spread anti-American animus, recruit agents, and influence the course of American policy,” writes Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez.
• The administration is taking steps to enforce disclosure of foreign funding, The Daily Signal reports.

Read Gonzalez’s piece here.

Defeating globalism: Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts gave a speech in Lisbon, Portugal, about the failure of globalist elites to deliver peace and prosperity. 

• “To be successful, each nation… must put its own nation first. It must be grounded in its own distinct national culture, its own history, its own identity, and put [its nation] at the service of its own sovereign citizens.” 

Watch his speech here.  

America’s Founding Fathers are endlessly fascinating figures, and we all have a duty to learn about them.

• That’s why we published American Founders: Leaders at the Creation of the Republic.
• In this free eBook, you’ll learn how the Founders created the greatest nation in the world, and delve deep into the lives of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and others.

Click here to get your free copy today!

Former Trump administration officials join Heritage experts to explore how America can deliver a compelling alternative to China’s ‘Belt and Road’ initiative.

• They will explain how new infrastructure financing techniques combined with U.S. energy abundance and capital-market depth can strengthen global resilience and financial freedom. 

Dec. 9, 1 p.m. Register here.  

• Oops! Gun Control Group’s Own Numbers Contradict Its Messaging on Defensive Gun Use—Amy Swearer and Isabel Guerrero
• Supreme Court Skeptical of New Jersey’s Intrusive Probe of Pregnancy Center—Thomas Jipping
• Report: Stopping the Unconstitutional Misuse of the Voting Rights Act: Louisiana v. Callais—Hans von Spakovsky
• The Trump Case Is Finally Dead, but Fani Willis Left Fulton County Taxpayers on the Hook for Millions of Dollars—Hans von Spakovsky and Nathan Desautels
• We Need Affordable Energy, Not Unrealistic Climate Targets—Kevin D. Dayaratna, Ph.D., and Krishna Mehta
• Why We’re Mired in Affordability Crisis—Preston Brashers
• Mamdani’s Government-Owned Grocery Stores are Awful in Theory but Worse in Practice—Mike Gonzalez
• How Hostile Regimes Bought Influence in US schools—Mike Gonzalez
• Drones Don’t Win Wars, Stockpiles Do: The Case for a US-India Munitions Partnership—Kriti Upadhyaya
• To Honor Solomon Islands’ Daniel Suidani, Americans Must Counter China’s Coercion—Andrew Harding and Allen Zhang

Victoria Coates, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy, appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war and what Europe should do to help to end it. Watch the clip here.