250 years young: To celebrate America’s 250th birthday, The Heritage Foundation launched a new ad campaign—“America. The Beautiful.”— highlighting the enduring things that make America exceptional.

• “The message in our ad serves as a powerful reminder that our nation has flourished because of its traditional values grounded in faith, marriage, and family,” said Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts.
• “As long as we keep these commitments first in our lives, America’s future will long endure.”
• The commercial aired during the NFL playoffs this weekend and during the College Football National Championship last night. It will run through April on TBS, TV Land, ESPN, Fox News, Newsmax, Hallmark, and several other networks.
• USA Today ran an exclusive on the campaign, which you can read here.

Watch the ad here.

Comeback kid: After years of setbacks under President Biden, the economy is showing signs of revival, thanks to President Trump’s America First policies.

• “Trump’s administration cut government jobs, slowed spending, and prioritized private-sector growth to restore economic health,” writes The Heritage Foundation's Chief Economist EJ Antoni, Ph.D.

Read more here.

Full steam: Heritage’s release of the nearly 170-page “Saving the Family” policy paper has generated plenty of attention.

• Heritage President Dr. Kevin Roberts appeared on NTD News, Fox Business, and Brian Kilmeade to discuss the paper.
• Fox News said Heritage “calls for sweeping policy changes to reverse declining birth and marriage rates, including a proposed $2,500 investment account for every newborn child.”

Read “Saving America by Saving the Family” here.

Indisputable: The Oversight Project—which boasts a combined 60 years of law enforcement experience across its team—came down firmly on the side of the ICE officer who shot and killed Renee Good.

• “The ICE officer in question is not only innocent, but was entirely justified in his actions,” reads the Oversight Project’s force analysis.

Get the full story on The Signal Sitdown here.

Homework: The Mississippi House of Representatives voted this week to approve the Mississippi Education Freedom Act, taking the state another step closer to joining those that have embraced universal education choice.

• “What Magnolia Student Accounts really do is inject healthy competition into Mississippi’s education landscape,” writes Heritage Senior Fellow Jason Bedrick. 

Read more here. 

Snakes: “Far from being a toothless dinosaur, Cuba remains a house of terror,” writes Heritage Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez, noting Cuba’s role in Venezuela’s plan to destabilize the U.S.

• “This Praetorian Guard around Maduro and the thugs on our streets are but the latest example of Cuba’s campaign to export Marxism-Leninism throughout the Western Hemisphere,” he writes in the Washington Examiner.

Read the report 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 open for applications, but the window is closing fast.

• 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.

Learn more about the prizes on The Daily Signal.

Apply here by 11:59 p.m., Feb. 2.

Legal win: In a recent 7–2 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that candidates maintain the right to sue over concerns about election integrity.

• “Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., and two of the state’s presidential electors had challenged a state law that allows mail ballots arriving 14 days after Election Day to be counted,” reports Fred Lucas of The Daily Signal.

Read why this case is so important here.

Heritage’s Young Leaders Program is hiring for the next class of talented young conservatives.

• Interns learn from the Boyce-Haller First Principles Lecture Series and some of the conservative movement’s brightest policy minds; they contribute to Heritage’s work on policy, communications, government relations, outreach, and operations. And more! 
• Internships are based in Washington, D.C., and pay is $18/hour.
• The semester starts May 11 and ends Aug. 7.
• Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis and are due on Feb. 1.

Learn more and apply here!

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, new analyses and insider accounts revealed major vulnerabilities in how the U.S. oversees high-risk biological research.

 

Leading experts will explore the scientific and national security implications of gain-of-function research, highlight weaknesses in current oversight, and discuss realistic reforms to how the United States oversees such research.

 

Jan. 20, 10:30 a.m. Register here.

• In Defense of the Aircraft Carrier—Wilson Beaver and Robert Peters
• Why the Indo-Pacific Needs an Industrial Compact—Kriti Upadhyaya
• Trump’s Strategic Strike in Venezuela Creates Opportunities for US Energy Dominance—Nicole Huyer
• Refugee Flood Isn’t Smart Policy; It’s the Gift That Keeps on Taking—Simon Hankinson
• Let’s Be Honest About ICE Shootings, and How We Got Here—Simon Hankinson
• Talking Heads Are Missing Labor Market Strength—EJ Antoni, Ph.D.
• Defaulted Student Loans Come Due—a Hard but Necessary Lesson—EJ Antoni, Ph.D. and Peter St. Onge
• Gold, an Ancient Refuge in a Digital Age—Allen Mendenhall, Ph.D.
• The Dark World of Custom-Ordered Children—Emma Waters
• The MAHA Case for Advanced Genetic Editing—Emma Waters
• What Is Zionism? What Is Christian Zionism?—Jay Richards, Ph.D.
• Total Legal Immunity for Dangerous Pesticides? Stop Big Ag’s Scheme Now—Jennifer Galardi

After she met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, Venezuela opposition leader María Corina Machado came to Heritage’s headquarters on Friday to take questions from reporters at a packed event, saying “I am very honored, not only with The Heritage Foundation, but with every single citizen of this country that has welcomed us and has honored the immense struggle that the Venezuelan people [have] fought for so long. And finally, we can say that we are, yes, at the threshold of freedom.” Watch the event here.

In an appearance on Fox News, Rob Greenway, director of the Allison Center for National Security, said that the best way for the U.S. to aid the Iranian people right now is to “target the National Information Network established by the Chinese to restrict access to internal and external communications and liberate the people of Iran so that they can communicate with the outside world.” Watch the clip here.