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EPI Policy Center

Website:

www.epi.org/types/epi-policy-center
Tax ID:

20-1173919
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(4)

Formation:

2009
Type:

Left-Wing Advocacy Arm
President:

Lawrence Mishel

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The EPI Policy Center is the advocacy affiliate of the labor union-connected think tank Economic Policy Institute. The Economic Policy Institute provides union-funded research and programming, whereas the EPI Policy Center is the advocacy and lobbying arm for the organization, pushing for a left-of-center and pro-labor union agenda at the state, local and federal levels of government. 1 EPI Policy Center publishes literature praising the budget proposals of the left-of-center Congressional Progressive Caucus. 2

Background

The Economic Policy Institute was founded in 1986, and credits its founding to several notable liberal political figures including Lester Thurow and Robert Reich. 3 EPI reported nearly $6 million of revenue in its most recent financial statement and receives millions in funding from the nation’s largest labor unions, and its board of directors is chaired by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. On all filings, the EPI Policy Center has shared the same president as the EPI. 4 EPI Policy Center is small in scope; a number of the group’s IRS has tax filings report less than $50,000 in income. 5 In 2009, EPI Policy Center’s largest year in the past decade by revenues, the group reported $140,457. 6

A list of current board members is unavailable for the EPI Policy Center; as of 2009 (its most recently available full public report to the IRS), board members included then-EPI president Larry Mishel; then-incumbent union presidents Richard Trumka, Randi Weingarten, Gerald McEntee, and Bruce Raynor; and EPI board members Jeff Faux, Robert Kuttner, and Julianne Malveaux. 7

Activities

In most years, EPI Policy Center reports less than $50,000 per year of revenue and thus is not required to file detailed financial reports with the Internal Revenue Service. 8 A website dedicated solely to the EPI Policy Center contains a few articles from 2008 or prior. 9 In 2018, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) government worker union provided EPI Policy Center with $150,000.10

On the website of the Economic Policy Institute one can find publications published under the EPI policy center’s name on EPI Policy Center letterhead. These papers are the only trace of EPI Policy Center Activity on the EPI website. There are only six such papers, five of them are papers praising the most recent proposed budget by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of far-left U.S. Representatives, for fiscal years 2013 to 2018. The most recent report was published in May of 2017 and all six reports were published by EPI staff members. 11

Economic Policy institute uses the EPI Policy Center is to sign letters with other liberal groups to urge Congress to take specific action; in 201712 and 2018,13 the EPI Policy Center signed letters that opposed the confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

EPI Policy Center collects donations through left wing funding arm ActBlue, which is a fundraising network designed to be “the online clearinghouse for Democratic action.”14

References

  1. “About”. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/about/
  2. “EPI Policy Center” Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/types/epi-policy-center/
  3. About”. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/about/
  4. IRS 990-N e-Postcard. EPI Policy Center. 2016. https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=4287369&ein=201173919&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=1&names=epi+policy+center&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States
  5. IRS 990-N e-Postcard. EPI Policy Center. 2016. https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=4287369&ein=201173919&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=1&names=epi+policy+center&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States
  6. EPI Policy Center, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-EZ), 2009, Part I Line 9
  7. EPI Policy Center, Short Form Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990-EZ), 2009, Part IV
  8. IRS 990-N e-Postcard. EPI Policy Center. 2016. https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/displayAll.do?dispatchMethod=displayAllInfo&Id=4287369&ein=201173919&country=US&deductibility=all&dispatchMethod=searchAll&isDescending=false&city=&ein1=&postDateFrom=&exemptTypeCode=al&submitName=&sortColumn=orgName&totalResults=1&names=epi+policy+center&resultsPerPage=25&indexOfFirstRow=0&postDateTo=&state=All+States
  9. “EPI Policy Center” EPIpolicycenter.org. www.EPIpolicycenter.org
  10. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Annual Report of a Labor Organization (Form LM-2), 2018, Schedule 16
  11. “EPI Policy Center”. Economic Policy institute. https://www.epi.org/types/epi-policy-center/
  12. “LETTER TO SENATE RE: JUDGE GORSUCH’S TROUBLING MONEY-IN-POLITICS RECORD” Demos, Everyvoice.org. March 14, 2017, https://www.demos.org/publication/letter-senate-re-judge-gorsuch%E2%80%99s-troubling-money-politics-record
  13. “54 NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS TO CONGRESS: End the Corporate Tax Preference for Shifting Jobs & Profits Offshore”. Fact Coalition: Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency. May 24, 2018. https://thefactcoalition.org/54-national-organizations-congress-end-corporate-tax-preference-shifting-jobs-profits-offshore?utm_medium=policy-analysis/letters-to-congress
  14. “Donate to the EPI Policy Center”. ActBlue. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/epipc-franken
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