Timeline of Brookings Institution

This is a timeline of FIXME.

Big picture

Time period	Development summary
1990s	"In the 1990s, the federal government devolved many of its social programs back to cities and states, and Brookings shaped a new generation of urban policies to help build strong neighborhoods, cities and metropolitan regions."

Full timeline

Year	Event type	Details
1916		"In 1916, Robert S. Brookings worked with other government reformers to create the first private organization devoted to the fact-based study of national public policy issues. The new Institute for Government Research became the chief advocate for effective and efficient public service and sought to bring science to the study of government." "A group of leading educators, businessmen, attorneys, and financiers—including businessman and philanthropist Robert S. Brookings—found the Institute for Government Research (IGR), the predecessor of the Brookings Institution, in Washington, DC. It is the first private organization devoted to bettering the practices and performance of government with recommendations generated by outside experts. Its first research project, directed by economist William Willoughby, focuses on helping the Bureau of Internal Revenue revise the reporting of tax statistics for greater accuracy."
1917		"President Woodrow Wilson appoints Robert Brookings to the War Industries Board, which coordinates the purchase of military supplies, and later makes him chairman of the board’s Price Fixing Committee, to discourage profiteering."
1919		"IGR publishes “A National Budget System: the Most Important of all Governmental Reconstruction Measures.” The Institute’s director, William Willoughby, testifies on the subject to a House Select Committee on the Budget."
1921		"IGR recommendations lead to the crafting and passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which expands executive power in the federal budget process. President Warren Harding calls it “the beginning of the greatest reform in governmental practices since the beginning of the republic.”"
1921		"Brookings economists played a large role in crafting the 1921 legislation that created the first U.S. Bureau of the Budget. President Warren G. Harding called the bureau, which planned the government’s financial outlays, “the greatest reform in governmental practices since the beginning of the republic.”
1922		"Brookings created two sister organizations: the Institute of Economics in 1922 and a graduate school in 1924" "Robert Brookings leads the creation of a new organization, the Institute of Economics, for the “sole purpose of ascertaining the facts about current economic problems and of interpreting these facts for the people of the United States.” Harold Moulton, an economist at the University of Chicago, is named its director."
1923		"Harold Moulton and staff economist Constantine McGuire write of post-Great War Europe that “the reparation situation has gone from very bad to worse.” In their reports they study the ability of Germany and its allies on the losing side of World War I to pay the debts mandated by the Versailles Treaty."
1923		"A Graduate School Is Created. The Robert S. Brookings Institute of Economics and Government for Teaching and Research (later the Robert S. Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government) is established in partnership with Washington University in St. Louis to provide training in public service. Between 1924 and 1930, the school awards 74 PhDs."
1924		"Brookings created two sister organizations: the Institute of Economics in 1922 and a graduate school in 1924"
1927		"Brookings created two sister organizations: the Institute of Economics in 1922 and a graduate school in 1924. In 1927, the institutes and the school merged to form the present-day Brookings Institution, with the mission to promote, conduct and foster research “in the broad fields of economics, government administration and the political and social sciences.”"
1927		"Three Organizations Merge into One institutional milestone. The Institute for Government Research (founded 1916), the Institute of Economics (1922), and the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government (1923) merge to form The Brookings Institution, named for Robert Brookings in recognition of his services to all three organizations. Its mission: “to promote, carry on, conduct and foster scientific research, education, training and publication in the broad fields of economics, government administration and the political and social sciences generally.”"
1927		"First President Is Chosen. The Brookings Trustees choose the organization’s first president: Harold Moulton, who had been director of the Institute of Economics and a member of the boards of the Graduate School and the Institute for Government Research." Harold Moulton (1927 – 1952)
1932		"Robert Brookings dies in Washington, D.C. on November 15, at the age of 82. Just before his death, Brookings’s book The Way Forward, in which he calls for the more equal distribution of wealth, is published."
1934		"The Institution publishes four works known as the “capacity studies” on income distribution and economic progress in the mid-1930s. The studies focus on production and consumption capacity, capital, and market speculation in the 1920s, and income distribution as it relates to the efficient functioning of the U.S. economic system. The capacity studies are the major guide to the U.S. economy for policymakers for much of the decade."
1928		"1928 Survey of American Indian Conditions landmark research Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work commissioned IGR’s Lewis Meriam to undertake a comprehensive survey of the condition of Native Americans. The resulting report is influential in shaping American Indian affairs policies in the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations."
1928		"Dawn of In-House Book Publishing institutional milestone Brookings begins its own in-house publishing division, the forerunner of the Brookings Institution Press."
1935		"1935 Analyzing New Deal Programs An Institute of Economics team directed by staff economist Leverett Lyon publishes a comprehensive study of President Franklin Roosevelt’s National Recovery Administration (NRA), a New Deal agency. The study’s authors conclude that the NRA impeded economy recovery after the Depression. Two years later, Edwin Nourse, an agriculture economist and director of the Institute of Economics, publishes a study of administrative problems in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. Agriculture Secretary Henry Wallace said that “We’ve been doing so much wishful thinking around here, we’d benefit from an independent audit.” Nourse went on to become the first chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Harry Truman."
1948		"In 1948, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (R-MI), praised Brookings for a report that would become “the Congressional ‘work-sheet’ in respect to this complex and critical problem.”"
1952		Robert Calkins.
1960		"Nearly a year before the 1960 election, Brookings governmental studies expert Laurin Henry published Presidential Transitions, designed to help the winning candidate—John F. Kennedy or Richard M. Nixon—launch his administration smoothly. The book was followed by a series of confidential issues papers prepared by Brookings experts."
1966		"On September 29, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson helped mark Brookings’s fiftieth anniversary with an address on public service and the importance of America’s cities."
1967		Kermit Gordon.
1976		Gilbert Y. Steiner.
1977		Bruce MacLaury.
Early 1980s		"Joseph Pechman, director of the Economic Studies program at Brookings, pushed hard for comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code in the early 1980s. His research led to the Tax Reform Act of 1986—a major bill that had a profound impact on the U.S. economy."
1986		"Joseph Pechman, director of the Economic Studies program at Brookings, pushed hard for comprehensive reform of the U.S. tax code in the early 1980s. His research led to the Tax Reform Act of 1986—a major bill that had a profound impact on the U.S. economy."
1995		Michael Armacost.
2001		"As President Bill Clinton prepared to sign historic welfare reform legislation, Ron Haskins, a former Republican congressional staffer, and Isabel Sawhill, a former official in the Office of Management and Budget for President Clinton, teamed up at Brookings to study the nation’s policies on children and families. In 2001, a proposal by Sawhill and researcher Adam Thomas for a child tax credit became part of major tax legislation."
2001		"The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, increased the urgency of developing strategies to address the threat while sustaining America’s role as a force for prosperity and stability abroad and an open society at home. With remarkable speed, Brookings experts produced influential proposals for homeland security and intelligence operations. They also testified before Congress and used the Institution’s outreach capacity, including its in-house television studio, to explain the new global reality to a frightened public."
2002		Strobe Talbott.
2017		John R. Allen.

Meta information on the timeline

How the timeline was built

The initial version of the timeline was written by FIXME.

Funding information for this timeline is available.

What the timeline is still missing

[1], [2], [3],[4]