The Heritage Foundation Proposes Federal "Marriage Bootcamp" in New Policy Blueprint [View all]

Heritage published its blueprint for federally subsidized "marriage bootcamps" run by churches.

https://globalextremism.org/post/project-2025-january-14th-update/

After the success of Project 2025, the authors at the Heritage Foundation have intensified their focus on imposing a Christian nationalist view of the ideal American family in 2026, urging the Trump administration to fund “marriage bootcamp” classes for unmarried couples living together. This is part of a 168-page policy document, released on January 8, 2026, that seeks to reshape how Americans form families. The report, titled “Saving America by Saving the Family,” builds on the policy framework Heritage established in Project 2025, the 920-page transition blueprint that has already guided the Trump administration’s overhaul of federal agencies. Where Project 2025 focused on restructuring government, it acted as a springboard for this new document which extends Heritage’s reach into private life, proposing cash incentives for marriage, discouragement of dating apps, and expanded Sunday closing laws.

Heritage describes the effort as a “culture-wide Manhattan Project” to reverse declining marriage and birth rates. “Our country will not survive if families continue to crumble at this rate,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts wrote. He warned that the United States is “dangerously close to being unable to reverse the decline” in family formation. The Heritage report defines marriage as “the committed union of one man and one woman” and calls it “the cornerstone” of civilization. Children, the authors write, are “divine gifts” arriving through “God’s grace.” The report cites Aristotle and Cicero in arguing that family serves as the foundation of political order. Heritage argues that federal policy should favor heterosexual married couples over same-sex couples, unmarried partners living together, polyamorous relationships, and people who choose to parent alone. “Fathers and mothers are not generic and interchangeable parents,” Heritage writes. The report acknowledges that IVF has helped people build families but recommends against the practice outside of marriage.

Churches would apply for federal grants to run the bootcamps. Heritage cites a $35 million HHS program called Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive (HEART), an evolution of healthy marriage grants that date back to George W. Bush’s Healthy Marriage Initiative in 2002, as the funding model. Participants would learn communication, money management, fidelity, and conflict resolution. Nonprofits, radio spots, transit ads, and social media would drive recruitment. At the end, a communal wedding. Couples walk down the aisle together and receive a $5,000 wedding bonus from private foundations. Mentor couples would guide them afterward. Grantees get paid based on marriage success rates. The report doesn’t define what counts as success or how long marriages must last. Heritage proposes HHS-funded ad campaigns. One suggested slogan: “Give her a ring before she gives you a baby.” The report holds up then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2013 teen pregnancy public service announcement ads as a model.

These ads blatantly shamed young mothers and featured photos of toddlers asking, “Honestly, Mom, chances are he won’t stay with you. What happens to me?” Beyond marriage bootcamp, Heritage’s report proposes $2,500 deposits into investment accounts for couples who marry by age 30. Married biological parents would receive a new tax credit equal to the $17,670 adoption tax credit, with a 25 percent bonus for families with three or more children. The report encourages couples to have an average of two children to maintain the population. U.S. fertility dropped to a record low of 1.59 children per woman in 2024. The Heritage report also discourages online dating and calls for expanding blue laws, which restrict Sunday alcohol sales in some states, into a “universal day of rest.” The report asks President Trump to sign executive orders requiring every federal grant, contract, and regulation to be assessed for its effect on marriage and family formation.

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