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The Family Policy Institute of Washington believes that which is good for individual families is good for all of society. Properly understood, "families" are formed only by ties of blood, marriage, or adoption, and "marriage" is a union of one man and one woman. We believe that the law should recognize only these traditional definitions of marriage and family and that public policy should encourage formation of such families. A large and still growing body of research shows that children do best when raised by their own biological mother and father who are committed to one another in a lifelong marriage, and that adults also thrive when in such a marriage. The family should be respected as a largely autonomous sphere of self-government, not as something inferior to the civil government.

Family Structure

The Family Policy Institute of Washington believes, and social science has now clearly demonstrated, that children do best when raised by their own biological mother and father who are committed to one another in a lifelong marriage. Indeed, the data demonstrate that adults also thrive in this same family structure. Other forms of the family arise from rejection or ambivalence between the parents, before or after marriage. This may include ambivalence about marriage (cohabitation), or the rejection by one of the parents of the other, as is the case in divorce, remarried step families (where there is almost always a history of rejection for at least one of the spouses), single parenthood, or step-cohabiting parenthood. 

The Family Policy Institute of Washington strongly supports adoption, particularly as an alternative to abortion, single parenthood, or foster care. The purpose of adoption is not to provide children for adults who want them, but to provide for children families that give them the experience of intact married family life as much as possible. Adoption policy should therefore include a primary preference for placing children with a married mother and father as long as such are available.

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Family Economics

The family is the great generator, and the intact family the greatest generator, of human capital (knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits of the individual), and of much financial savings and capital as well. The vast majority of small businesses (out of which eventually grow the large businesses of the nation) begin as family businesses, started on the savings of family and relatives, and on the human capital formed by parental investment in education of children.

The principle of fairness applies to the tax treatment of the family: it should get the same deductions as business does in the tax code for similar investments in human capital. Further, per-child tax breaks are important in encouraging the birth of children not only for the solvency of Social Security and Medicare but also to ensure the well formed workforce needed by modern economies. FRC also believes that the two-worker parent family should not be favored (as it presently is) over the family with one parent at home raising the children, nor that the public school parent should be fiscally favored over the private school parent or the home school parent, especially as these two deliver superior outcomes.

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