Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA)

Background

Taxpayers Protection Alliance is a right-of-center fiscal watchdog that publishes reports on government waste, fraud, and abuse. ¹

The group says it supports smaller government and seeks to hold politicians accountable for wasteful spending through blogs, commentaries, and “special spending alerts.” ¹

Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation is the sister organization to the TPA. ⁴

Advocacy

In 2023, Taxpayers Protection Alliance supported bipartisan legislation called the Identifying and Eliminating Wasteful Programs Act introduced by Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Mike Braun (R-IN), along with Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Nancy Mace (R-SC). The stated goal of the legislation is to audit spending to determine what programs are inefficient or duplicative. ⁵

TPA opposed the expansion of the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. ⁶

In 2021, TPA defended the Congressional Budget Office against criticism from the Biden White House officials, who criticized CBO analysts as “inexperienced” in a preemptive move before the agency scored Biden’s social spending proposal. ⁷

In 2020, the group launched a six-figure ad campaign to oppose “surprise” medical billing legislation and calling it a “handout” to big insurance companies. ⁸

TPA was among 55 right-leaning organizations and activists that signed onto a November 2018 letter opposing the Trump administration’s proposal to create price controls for drugs administered under Medicare Part B. Other organizations signing onto the letter included the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform, the American Conservative Union, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and FreedomWorks. ³

In 2014, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance established SolarSecrets.org, a website critical of the solar energy industry. ⁹  The group released a report in 2015 about federal subsidies for the solar energy industry. The report said the Obama administration spent $150 billion on solar power and other weather-dependent energy projects. The report said states covered 538 rebate programs, with 20 states providing tax credits, 18 states providing a corporate tax credit and 14 states offering taxpayer-funded grants to support solar electricity. ²

In July 2011, TPA and Our Generation released a report titled “Are taxpayers getting their money’s worth?” about special benefits and salaries that members of Congress and staff were paid. ¹⁰

Financial Information

Taxpayers Protection Alliance spent $220,000 on lobbying in 2022 and spent about $250,000 on lobbying in 2021, according to Open Secrets. ¹¹

Critics say the organization is part of the Koch political network, and is funded by Koch-connected organizations such as Americans for Job Security, America Encore (formerly Center to Protect Patient Rights), and Freedom Partners. ⁹

TPA’s tax document has said it “has given control of the management duties and the daily activities of the organization to MLM Consulting, LLC.” It states that “MLM will be responsible for managing the organization and work to support the exempt purposes of TPA.” The president of TPA, David Williams, is the sole owner of MLM Consulting LLC. ⁹

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the leading pharmaceutical industry trade group, gave $65,000 to the TPA in 2019 ¹² and $60,000 in 2020. ⁸

The Alliance on Antitrust, a nonprofit opposing regulation of the technology industry that is funded by Google and other tech firms, contributed to the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. ¹³

Leadership

David Williams is the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance. He has spoken at government waste panels in South Korea and France and advised taxpayer groups from around the world. ⁴ He previously was the vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste.

Patrick Hedger is executive director at TPA. He was previously a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Technology and Innovation. He was also previously director of policy at FreedomWorks Foundation. ⁴

Courtney Mattison is the vice president of operations. She previously worked for Americans for Tax Reform, American Legislative Exchange Council, and State Policy Network. ⁴