The Searchlight Policy Mission

Policy Work

The goals of Searchlight’s policy mission are as follows:

1. To encourage the production of novel, pro-growth, responsive policy and research to be championed by lawmakers, stakeholders, and thought leaders at all levels of government.
2. To challenge outdated assumptions, reject ideological orthodoxy, and energetically drive the conversation through ideas that are supported by facts, fresh data, subject matter expertise, and practical application.
3. To develop and burnish nimble public policy professionals who are unafraid to disrupt norms and support policy implementation, principals, public institutions, and other entities with a goal of advancing liberal values and policy outcomes that benefit all Americans.

Current Areas of Focus

We’re engaged in answering big questions about the role of the government and its relationship to the American people. Below is a sampling of questions and problems Searchlight’s public policy experts and fellows are focused on, with new ideas advancing constantly.

• Energy: Have the collective strategic decisions to emphasize crisis and focus on consumer choice backfired? How do we make energy too cheap to meter? How do we build enough energy to thrive, while reducing pollution at home and abroad? Carbon emissions are a global problem—how do we shift the focus to global solutions?
• Earned Benefits: Can liberals build broad-based support for strengthening the social safety net by frontally addressing questions of deservingness in ways not seen since the New Deal? Can resentment that stems from violations of just-world beliefs be separated from other forms of resentment, and assuaged?
• Health Care: How do we lower costs? What do people really want from their health care coverage? How do we maximize coverage efficiently and effectively? How do we ensure people are paying for what they need? What’s the right role for the government in providing health care to its citizens?
• Housing: How do we build housing rapidly to stop population decline and put a real dent in homelessness? What barriers exist to building more housing? What tradeoffs are people willing to accept as housing development ramps up?
• AI: How can we leverage AI to improve living standards and improve government efficiency? How can we build a social safety net that anticipates the coming AI transition?
• State Capacity: What would it take to have one simple form that covers every interaction between a citizen and the federal government—and how can we get there? What would a federal government optimized for core functions like service delivery and national defense look like? Should executive branch agencies be moved out of DC?
• Education: Do people still feel like public education is the ticket to a life of productivity? Where has our education system fallen short, and how can we break cycles of failure and underperformance? What is the future of higher education in this country? What do citizens need to be competitive in this dynamic world?
• Trade: With tariffs unfolding as a predictable disaster for working Americans, what does a new free trade regime look like? Can prioritizing carbon reduction in trade policy spur innovation?
• Tax Policy: The tax code is riddled with giveaways to the wealthiest Americans and big corporations. Complexity provides opportunity for avoidance. What does a simplified, fully reformed tax code for the 21st century look like?
• Fiscal Responsibility: From FDR to LBJ, fiscal responsibility was always a mainstay of ambitious domestic agendas. LBJ spent more words on budget-cutting than civil rights in his 1964 State of the Union, and FDR routinely emphasized fiscal prudence. Yet it has fallen out of our lexicon in any serious way. What does a modern approach to fiscal responsibility look like?
• National Security: America’s role in the world is always changing. How can we make the most of our alliances, maximize the positive aspects of our international engagement, and not repeat the foreign policy mistakes of the past? How can we make sure that Americans feel safe? What does a truly revitalized defense and foreign policy approach look like?

Fellows Program

In addition to in-house policy expertise, Searchlight hosts a full cadre of public policy fellows. The fellowship program seeks to embrace policy entrepreneurship and break down the silos that have been the unwelcome hallmark of stale policy development. Too often, good ideas have been suffocated in conference rooms. Searchlight fellows develop ideas with durability that withstand real scrutiny and prioritize results.

Fellowship policy development operates in three stages:

PHASE I: Incubation

Selected proposals receive a stipend of $10,000 per month for three months to research, produce, and present a novel policy proposal to address an ongoing issue. Fellows receive access to Searchlight’s resources, including polling, research, office space, communications, and government relations services. This stage emphasizes speed and creativity—embrace experimentation, break down silos, and think big. Fellows are encouraged not to be afraid to make mistakes. Caution is the death of creative policymaking.

PHASE II: Growth & Development

Fellows pitch their Phase I ideas for additional refinement, research, and development. Searchlight’s team and Policy Advisory Board decide which policies merit additional time on a case-by-case basis.

PHASE III: Synthesis

Ideas are synthesized into a comprehensive Realignment Agenda, to be released in 2027.

Applications for 2026 Searchlight Public Policy Fellowships will open on October 1.