Americans for Limited Government

Background

Americans for Limited Government (ALG) is a Virginia-based non-profit organization that describes itself as “fighting to reduce the size and scope of government, protecting individuals’ rights, promoting federalism, and rolling back the tyranny of the administrative state,” according to its website. The group says it pursues this agenda by “identifying and exposing unique issues from the limited government perspective, and working with Congress and state legislatures to prevent the continued expansion of government.” ALS terms its approach “aggressive” and “non-partisan.”¹

Americans for Limited Government publishes the Daily Torch, a website that has run articles and cartoons critical of climate science² and advocating against action to reduce emissions.³ ALG previously ran a site called Net Right Daily, which provided a similar platform.⁴

ALG was co-founded in 1996 by real estate investor Howard “Howie” Rich and Republican political strategist Bill Wilson.⁵

While claiming to have a “aggressive, non-partisan approach,”⁶ ALG has donated money almost exclusively to Republican candidates over the years, according to campaign finance data published by OpenSecrets.⁷

ALG has received funding from the Koch brothers’ donor network,⁸ and worked to oppose climate policies with other Koch-backed organizations, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Americans for Prosperity.⁹

Between 2011 and 2013, the group’s research arm received $2.7 million from Donors Trust, which has been described as the “dark-money ATM of the conservative movement.”¹⁰

In 2012, Mother Jones reported that ALG had funneled almost $2 million into an Illinois-focused super-PAC called “Now or Never,” which spent $1.7 million on ads supporting the campaign of Republican Rep. Joe Walsh and attacking Democratic challenger Tammy Duckworth.¹¹

ALG explicitly supported a number of President Donald Trump’s policies. The group ran a website called “BuildWallNow” that encouraged followers to “tell Congress to build the wall or shut the government down.”¹² Another website called “FireTheSwamp,” paid for by ALG, supported the so-called ”MERIT Act,” a bill that sought to make it easier to fire public workers.¹³

The organization was also one of several groups listed as attending a February 2019 forum about the Green New Deal, hosted by the Republican-dominated Congressional Western Caucus. CNBC reported that the forum’s guest list was “stacked with prominent climate-change deniers and representatives of industry-linked groups,” such as staff from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Climate Depot, Consumer Energy Alliance, and the American Energy Alliance, as well as Dr. David Legates. No independent scholars or researchers who specialize in energy systems were on the guest list.¹⁴

Despite its pro-market stance, ALG has opposed free trade deals,¹⁵. ALG played a leading role in the right-wing opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.¹⁶

Stance on Climate Change

The president of Americans for Limited Government, Rick Manning, has called climate change a “false flag,”¹⁷ defined by the Anti-Defamation League as “a term used by conspiracy theorists to suggest that various world events and crises, such as terrorist attacks and mass shootings, were actually orchestrated by governments or sinister forces in furtherance of a political or social goal, such as gun control or sowing public fear.”¹⁸

ALG has been praised by former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.),¹⁹ a strong supporter of the Tea Party movement²⁰ who has described himself as a “global warming denier.”²¹

June 2, 2014

In a post on the ALG website Net Right Daily, Rick Manning asserted:²²

“All of this combined with the lack of a warming planet since before rising seniors in high school were born, and it is clear that Mother Nature is making a pretty strong argument against those who insist the science is settled on the global warming debate.

“Yet, President Obama persists on using this shaky science to impose crippling regulatory regimes on the nation. New regulations that are not only economically disastrous as evidenced by the GDP contraction last quarter, but also more importantly, put our nation’s ability to produce enough electricity to meet our growing demand in jeopardy.

“And that would be a global warming disaster – our nation devolved from the most developed in the world to a third world status all due to Obama’s fealty to an economic suicide pact on the green altar of climate change.”

April 30, 2013

In an op-ed for the ALG website Net Right Daily, Rick Manning claimed:²³

“If man-made carbon dioxide concentrations in the earth’s atmosphere cause global warming, and these Russian scientists assert that the CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere has increased by 4 percent, but global warming has practically stopped. Then there is clearly zero correlation between CO2 and global warming.”

June 20, 2019

Robert Romano, vice president of public policy at Americans for Limited Government, argued on the ALG website Daily Torch that Congress should make it impossible for the federal government to regulate carbon emissions as pollution under the Clean Air Act:²⁴

“To prevent any more attempts to regulate carbon nationally, Congress must reform and amend the Clean Air Act to foreclose the possibility of carbon emissions regulations. Otherwise, it’s just a matter of time and an election cycle or two and the War on Coal will begin again — with the Green New Deal not too far behind.”

Funding

Ray Wotring, a spokesperson for Americans for Limited Government, told a Mother Jones reporter in 2012 that the group does not “as a practice” reveal its donors.²⁵ However, Politico reported in 2012 that ALG had received funding from the Koch network.²⁶

In 2006, the Center for Public Integrity revealed that in 2005, ALG had received 99 percent of its $5.4 million worth of funding from just three donors, despite claiming on its website that the group was “funded by thousands of individuals from across the country” and that “grassroots volunteers and donors make up the heart and soul of our organization.”²⁷

The following tables are based on data archived by the Conservative Transparency (CT) project, combined with original research by DeSmog, of publicly available IRS Form 990 filings. (Note: Not all of the individual figures from CT have been re-verified for accuracy.)²⁸

View the attached spreadsheet for details on Americans for Limited Government funding by year (.xlsx).

As Donor

Donor & Recipient	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	Grand Total
Americans for Limited Government (Donor)	$2,246,817	$1,208,015	$1,483,525	$900,950	$4,380,750	$223,000	$415,000	$50,000	$981,400	$11,889,457
South Carolinians for Responsible Government	$580,000	$321,000	$816,000	$348,500	$935,750	$56,000	$55,000			$3,112,250
Now or Never					$2,550,000		$265,000			$2,815,000
Colorado At Its Best	$920,000	$30,100	$91,000	$31,200						$1,072,300
U.S. Term Limits		$225,000	$125,000	$340,000	$315,000	$17,000				$1,022,000
Conservatives In Action	$100,000	$250,000	$150,000	$15,000						$515,000
Family Research Council Action									$424,000	$424,000
Foundation for Secure & Prosperous America	$350,000									$350,000
New Hampshire Advantage Coalition	$91,500	$33,500		$105,000	$50,000					$280,000
Alliance for Self-Governance					$270,000					$270,000
Americans for Job Security			$250,000							$250,000
Parents in Charge		$200,000								$200,000
Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle PAC									$172,400	$172,400
Lead					$170,000					$170,000
Alaska for Open Government		$70,980	$51,525							$122,505
Turning Point USA NFP									$100,000	$100,000
Ohio Accountability Project						$100,000				$100,000
AFA Action									$100,000	$100,000
Liberty Initiative Fund					$90,000					$90,000
Free Market America									$80,000	$80,000
Louisiana Action Council	$74,135									$74,135
Treasure State Network	$19,426	$54,625								$74,051
Policy Solutions Council							$70,000			$70,000
Numbers USA Action									$60,000	$60,000
South Carolinians for Responsible Government Foundation				$56,250						$56,250
Legislative Education Action Drive	$50,000									$50,000
Article 1 Advocate Super PAC								$50,000		$50,000
South Dakota Conservatives Action	$18,983	$7,585								$26,568
Americans for Tax Reform Foundation	$20,000									$20,000
Iowa Right to Life Committee							$20,000			$20,000
Hispanic Leadership Fund						$20,000				$20,000
Conservatives Hq.com									$20,000	$20,000
Arizonans In Action	$6,500	$8,950								$15,450
Ohio 2.0						$15,000				$15,000
Ohio Rising						$15,000				$15,000
Gun Owners of America									$15,000	$15,000
Montanans in Action	$5,800	$6,275								$12,075
California Term Limits Defense Fund	$10,473									$10,473
IACE Action									$10,000	$10,000
Competitive Governance Institute (Formerly Sam Adams Alliance)				$5,000						$5,000
Patriots for a Better America							$5,000			$5,000
Americans for Limited Government Foundation (Donor)	$39,000	$187,828	$787,015	$366,500	$448,750					$1,829,093
SCRG Foundation	$14,000	$71,500	$244,500	$128,500	$278,750					$737,250
Parents in Charge Foundation			$225,078	$69,000	$75,000					$369,078
U.S. Term Limits Foundation			$234,487	$82,000						$316,487
South Carolina Association of Independent Schools Serving Minority Children	$20,000	$49,000	$34,000	$5,000						$108,000
Citizens In Charge Foundation		$10,000			$95,000					$105,000
South Carolinians for Responsible Government				$82,000						$82,000
Family Policy Institute			$25,000							$25,000
South Carolina Policy Council		$25,000								$25,000
Palmetto Policy Forum		$20,000								$20,000
Anschutz Foundation			$13,950							$13,950
American Liberty Alliance		$12,328								$12,328
Foundation for Ethics in Public Service			$10,000							$10,000
Americans for Tax Reform Foundation	$5,000									$5,000
Grand Total	$2,285,817	$1,395,843	$2,270,540	$1,267,450	$4,829,500	$223,000	$415,000	$50,000	$981,400	$13,718,550

As Recipient

Donor	Americans for Limited Government	Americans for Limited Government Foundation	Grand Total
South Carolinians for Responsible Government	$3,112,250	$82,000	$3,194,250
Now or Never	$2,815,000		$2,815,000
Colorado At Its Best	$1,072,300		$1,072,300
U.S. Term Limits	$1,022,000		$1,022,000
SCRG Foundation		$737,250	$737,250
Conservatives In Action	$515,000		$515,000
Family Research Council Action	$424,000		$424,000
Parents in Charge Foundation		$369,078	$369,078
Foundation for Secure & Prosperous America	$350,000		$350,000
U.S. Term Limits Foundation		$316,487	$316,487
New Hampshire Advantage Coalition	$280,000		$280,000
Alliance for Self-Governance	$270,000		$270,000
Americans for Job Security	$250,000		$250,000
Parents in Charge	$200,000		$200,000
Phyllis Schafly’s Eagle PAC	$172,400		$172,400
Lead	$170,000		$170,000
Alaska for Open Government	$122,505		$122,505
South Carolina Association of Independent Schools Serving Minority Children		$108,000	$108,000
Citizens In Charge Foundation		$105,000	$105,000
Turning Point USA NFP	$100,000		$100,000
Ohio Accountability Project	$100,000		$100,000
AFA Action	$100,000		$100,000
Liberty Initiative Fund	$90,000		$90,000
Free Market America	$80,000		$80,000
Louisiana Action Council	$74,135		$74,135
Treasure State Network	$74,051		$74,051
Policy Solutions Council	$70,000		$70,000
Numbers USA Action	$60,000		$60,000
South Carolinians for Responsible Government Foundation	$56,250		$56,250
Article 1 Advocate Super PAC	$50,000		$50,000
Legislative Education Action Drive	$50,000		$50,000
South Dakota Conservatives Action	$26,568		$26,568
South Carolina Policy Council		$25,000	$25,000
Americans for Tax Reform Foundation	$20,000	$5,000	$25,000
Family Policy Institute		$25,000	$25,000
Iowa Right to Life Committee	$20,000		$20,000
Conservatives Hq.com	$20,000		$20,000
Palmetto Policy Forum		$20,000	$20,000
Hispanic Leadership Fund	$20,000		$20,000
Arizonans In Action	$15,450		$15,450
Gun Owners of America	$15,000		$15,000
Ohio Rising	$15,000		$15,000
Ohio 2.0	$15,000		$15,000
Anschutz Foundation		$13,950	$13,950
American Liberty Alliance		$12,328	$12,328
Montanans in Action	$12,075		$12,075
California Term Limits Defense Fund	$10,473		$10,473
Foundation for Ethics in Public Service		$10,000	$10,000
IACE Action	$10,000		$10,000
Competitive Governance Institute (Formerly Sam Adams Alliance)	$5,000		$5,000
Patriots for a Better America	$5,000		$5,000
Grand Total	$11,889,457	$1,829,093	$13,718,550

Americans for Limited Government operates both a 501(c)(4) arm titled Americans for Limited Government, Inc. (EIN 36-3975580), and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit entitled Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation (EIN 52-2020468).

IRS Form 990 Filings for Americans for Limited Government, Inc.

IRS Form 990 Filings for Americans for Limited Government Research Foundation

Key People

Bill Wilson is a founding board member of Americans for Limited Government. Wilson was ALG’s president from 2006 to 2013, and left the group’s board in 2016, according to his biography on Net Right Daily. According to this bio, Wilson worked as a youth coordinator in 1976 with the Reagan for President Campaign, and subsequently led other projects such as “regional operations to secure votes in support of President Reagan’s request for aid to the Freedom Fighters of Nicaragua” – referring to the counter-revolutionary Contras – “successful franchise battles by investor-owned utilities against government backed power Cooperatives, the development of a modern secondary mortgage market system in the newly freed Republic of Poland, and numerous Congressional campaigns.”²⁹

Howard “Howie” Rich, the board chair of Americans for Limited Government, is a New York real estate investor. In 2006 The Wall Street Journal described Rich as a “publicity-shy, libertarian-leaning businessman who has become the go-to man for supporters of conservative ballot initiatives.” Rich is a long-time board member of the Cato Institute³⁰ and is a board member of the Club for Growth,³¹ another “free market,” anti-regulation advocacy group tied to Koch operatives.³² ³³

The New York Times reported in 2009 that Howard Rich first contacted Bill Wilson in 1992, and has since been a “crucial financier of Mr. Wilson’s efforts at a series of organizations: U.S. Term Limits, Parents in Charge and Americans for Limited Government.” U.S. Term Limits also has deep Koch ties.³⁴

Richard “Rick” Manning, has been the president of Americans for Limited Government since 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile.³⁵ From 2006 to 2009, Manning was public affairs chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Labor. He worked as a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association from 1984 to 1993. ³⁶ ³⁷

Don Todd has been research director of Americans for Limited Government since 2009, according to his LinkedIn profile³⁸, and the president of the Americans for Limited Government Foundation, according to an archived biography page from Net Right Daily.³⁹ Past roles listed on LinkedIn include deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor Management Standards from 2001-2009, research director at the National Republican Senatorial Committee from 1986-2000, research director for the Gramm 96 Committee in 1996, research director at the Republican National Committee from 1987-1989, and executive director of the American Conservative Union from 1981-1984.⁴⁰, ⁴¹

Sean Noble was described in a 2011 Politico article as “another top Koch operative” who had been hired by Americans for Limited Government, but did not specify his role:⁴²

“Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, said he met Noble, a former House chief of staff who now runs his own consulting shop, during the effort to stop the Democratic health care overhaul from passing into law.”

According to the story, Sean Noble was on a panel “analyzing the coming midterm elections” at a Koch donor meeting in January 2010.⁴³

Sean Noble founded the Koch-tied group Center to Protect Patient Rights, since renamed American Encore, which campaigned against the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.

In a December 2022 article about newly-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s re-election plans, Axios reporter Jeremy Duda mentioned Noble: “Sean Noble, a longtime Republican operative, says Republicans are likely to nominate a more ‘extreme’ candidate, and if that happens, Sinema will take more votes from the GOP than from the Democrats.”⁴⁴

Actions

April 30, 2019

Americans for Limited Government released a joint letter with 16 other “free market” organizations, many of them Koch-funded and with a history of climate science denial, opposing a House bill intended to reverse then-President Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Other signatories included:⁴⁵

Competitive Enterprise Institute
FreedomWorks
Heritage Action
American Commitment
Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)
American Conservative Union
60 Plus Association
ALEC Action
Eagle Forum
Campaign for Liberty
The Heartland Institute
American Energy Alliance
Americans for Wise Energy Decisions
Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
Caesar Rodney Institute
Australian Environment Foundation

April 10, 2019

ALG President Rick Manning wrote an article praising President Trump’s deregulatory agenda in the energy sector:⁴⁶

“Private companies and individuals freed up to focus on getting oil, natural gas and coal out of the ground has led to a renaissance that has only been dreamed of for the past three generations when the bonds of energy dependency shaped much of American policy and our national mindset.”

August 17, 2018

In an article on the ALG Research website, Richard McCarty, director of research at the Americans for Limited Government Foundation, claimed that solar energy was “harming taxpayers and utility customers and soaking up funds that would be better spent on maintaining and upgrading the grid” and that “there is just no excuse for the government to be mandating and subsidizing green energy production.”⁴⁷

March 23, 2018

In an op-ed published by Daily Torch, titled “Scott Pruitt is bringing transparency to the EPA; why is the Church of Man-made Climate Change angry about that,” author Printus LeBlanc criticized “climate change alarmists” for their opposition to the imposition of the so-called “secret science” rule at the Environmental Protection Agency. LeBlanc was identified as “a contributing editor at Americans for Limited Government.”⁴⁸

July 12, 2017

ALG worked with a coalition of rightwing organizations, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Americans for Prosperity, to support legislation to prevent the Pentagon from implementing climate change and green energy policies, Reuters reported.⁴⁹

June 2, 2017

ALG‘s Net Right Daily published an article welcoming President Trump’s pledge to take the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, claiming that Trump had taken “the courageous step of leading America out from the clutches of the horrendously negotiated Paris climate change accords.”⁵⁰

May 31, 2017

Rick Manning, ALG‘s president, argued in an op-ed for The Hill that President Trump had defied “globalists” and made “the right call to support coal,” criticizing former Goldman Sachs president and then-White House National Economic Council director Gary Cohn:⁵¹

“Trump’s assistant denigrated the president’s position with respect to energy development when he attacked coal as a viable energy source, saying, ‘Coal doesn’t even make that much sense anymore as a feedstock.’

“If Democrat Gary Cohn wants to be president, he can take his Wall Street resume back to New York City, build his own campaign, and try to convince the Bernie Sanders dominated party of his choice to nominate him. But as long as he works for a president who campaigned and won in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia largely due to his support for the resource extraction industry, Cohn should avoid talking to the media about his opinions on energy.”

June 9, 2015

A Guardian investigation found that Americans for Limited Government was one of a group of right-wing organizations promoting climate science denial and undermining efforts to combat climate change. The organizations received a total of $125 million from Donors Trust between 2011 and 2013, with $2.7 million allocated to ALG.⁵²

July 12, 2013

ALG‘s Net Right Daily published a piece by Larry Bell, an advisor at the Koch-funded climate science denial group CFACT, in which he quoted research by well known climate science deniers Roy Spencer and John Christy. Bell wrote that “theoretical climate models upon which crisis claims are entirely based can’t be trusted,” and that “if those models can’t be validated, then claims of consensus attributing an unproven crisis to human CO2 emissions, or to any other cause for that matter, certainly don’t warrant legitimacy either.”⁵³

Later in the article, Bell appeared to celebrate a decline in acceptance of climate science in the U.S.:

“There can be little doubt that ongoing climate science consensus bleatings are receiving less and less of a howling response. According to Pew Research, fewer than half of all Americans now believe that scientists agree that warming is mostly due to human activities, down from 59 percent in 2006 to 45 percent today.”