or eliminating Tennessee's sales taxes on groceries, cigarettes, and gasoline. In 2011, TCPR opposed a proposal to extend unemployment insurance benefits from a maximum of 79 weeks to a maximum of 99 weeks. The Beacon Center and the Tennessee branch of the American Civil Liberties Union have worked together to try to end civil forfeiture in Tennessee. Health care In January 2015, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam called a special session in order to expand Medicaid in Tennessee under the Affordable Care Act. The Beacon Center testified before Senate and House committees and took credit for defeating the bill. Following the defeat of the Medicaid expansion, the Beacon Center advocated for direct primary care, a program in which patients could avoid purchasing health insurance and contract directly with their primary care physicians. Transparency In 2008, the organization accounted for 16 percent of all open records requests to the Tennessee executive branch. On one occasion, TCPR sued the state Department of Finance and Administration over delayed response to an open records request. In 2008, state officials responded to a TCPR open-records request for email messages from the Tennessee Department of Revenue by telling TCPR that it would have to pay $3,201 for each day of email messages it sought. Environment TCPR operated a website entitled "Carnival of Climate Change" which was skeptical of the scientific consensus on climate change. TCPR was one of the most significant organizations and individuals spreading climate disinformation, according to a 2009 report in Mother Jones magazine. Report on Al Gore's house In 2007 TCPR issued a report asserting that Al Gore's residence in the Nashville area used more than 20 times the energy of a typical home in the United States. Reporters who followed up on the allegations found that Gore's house did use more electricity than a typical home, but they also found that it was about 12 times the average for Nashville (20 times not including power from solar panels at the property), pointed out that the building functioned both as a residence and a business office for both Al and Tipper Gore, it was much larger than a typical home, and that Gore made substantial improvements to the home during 2007 that reduced its electricity consumption. Drew Johnson, TCPR's president at that time, later said that the widespread attention to its report resulted in TCPR's receiving death threats. References External links Organizational Profile –