influence Brookings traces its history to 1916 and has contributed to the creation of the United Nations, the Marshall Plan, and the Congressional Budget Office, as well as to the development of influential policies for deregulation, broad-based tax reform, welfare reform, and foreign aid. The annual think tank index published by Foreign Policy ranks it the number one think tank in the U.S. and the Global Go To Think Tank Index believes it is the number one such tank in the world. Moreover, in spite of an overall decline in the number of times information or opinions developed by think tanks are cited by U.S. media, of the 200 most prominent think tanks in the U.S., the Brookings Institution's research remains the most frequently cited. In a 1997 survey of congressional staff and journalists, Brookings ranked as the most influential and first in credibility among 27 think tanks considered. Yet "Brookings and its researchers are not so concerned, in their work, in affecting the ideological direction of the nation" and rather tend "to be staffed by researchers with strong academic credentials". Along with the Council on Foreign Relations and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Brookings is generally considered one of the most influential policy institutes in the U.S. Political stance As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Brookings describes itself as independent and nonpartisan. A 2005 UCLA study concluded it was "centrist" because it was referenced as an authority almost equally by both conservative and liberal politicians in congressional records from 1993 to 2002. The New York Times has called Brookings liberal, liberal-centrist, and centrist. The Washington Post has called Brookings centrist, liberal, and center-left. The Los Angeles Times called Brookings liberal-leaning and centrist before opining that it did not believe such labels mattered. In 1977, Time magazine called Brookings the "nation's pre-eminent liberal think tank". Newsweek has called it centrist and Politico has used the term "center-left". The media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, which describes itself as "progressive", has called Brookings "centrist", "conservative", and "center-right". Journalists at The Atlantic and Salon have argued that Brookings foreign policy scholars were overly supportive of Bush administration policies abroad. Brookings scholars have served in Republican and Democratic administrations, including Mark McClellan, Ron Haskins and Martin Indyk. Brookings's board of trustees is composed of 53 trustees and more than three dozen honorary trustees, including Kenneth Duberstein, a former chief of staff to