 | |
| Abbreviation | ALEC |
|---|---|
| Formation | September 1973; 52 years ago (1973-09) |
| Type | Nonprofit organization |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3) |
| Headquarters | 2733 Crystal Drive, Suite 1000, Crystal City,Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 38°50′49″N77°03′08″W / 38.8470°N 77.0523°W /38.8470; -77.0523 |
National Chair | Patricia Rucker |
Chief Executive Officer | Lisa Nelson[1] |
| Revenue | $11.3 million[2] (2023) |
| Expenses | $11.2 million[2] (2023) |
| Website | ALEC.org |
Formerly called | Conservative Caucus of State Legislators |
TheAmerican Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is anonprofit organization ofconservativestate legislators andprivate sector representatives who draft and sharemodel legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.[3][4][5]
ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate onmodel bills—draft legislation that members may customize and introduce for debate in their own state legislatures.[6][7][8] ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combatingillegal immigration, looseningenvironmental regulations, tighteningvoter identification rules, weakeninglabor unions, and opposinggun control.[9][10][11][12] Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states that include Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine.[13] Approximately 200 model bills become law each year.[9][14] ALEC also serves as a networking tool among certain state legislators, allowing them to research conservative policies implemented in other states.[11] Many ALEC legislators say the organization converts campaign rhetoric and nascent policy ideas into legislative language.[6]
ALEC's activities, while legal,[15] received public scrutiny after news reports in 2012 from outlets such asThe New York Times andBloomberg Businessweek described ALEC as an organization that gave corporate interests outsized influence.[9][10] Resulting public pressure led to a number of legislators and corporations withdrawing from the organization. However, at ALEC's July 2022 policy summit,Insider reported on apolitical commentator who stated that if theconservative constitutional convention movement—which "is gaining momentum" largely out of public view—is successful in its plan to rewrite theConstitution, the USA will become the "conservative nation" ALEC has been working toward.[16]
ALEC was founded in 1973 inChicago as the Conservative Caucus of State Legislators, a project initiated by Mark Rhoads, anIllinois state house staffer, to counter theEnvironmental Protection Agency,wage, andprice controls, and to respond to the defeat ofBarry Goldwater in the1964 presidential election.[17][18]
Conservative legislators felt the word "conservative" was unpopular with the public at the time, however, so the organization was renamed to the American Legislative Exchange Council.[17] In 1975, with the support of theAmerican Conservative Union, ALEC registered as a federal nonprofit agency.[19][20]Bill Moyers andGreenpeace have attributed the establishment of ALEC to the influentialPowell Memorandum, which led to the rise of a new business activist movement in the 1970s.[21][22]
ALEC was co-founded by conservative activistPaul Weyrich, who also co-foundedThe Heritage Foundation.[15][17]Henry Hyde, who later became a U.S. congressman, and Lou Barnett, who later became national political director ofRonald Reagan's Political Action Committee, also helped to found ALEC. Early members included a number of state and local politicians who went on to statewide office, such asBob Kasten,Tommy Thompson, andScott Walker of Wisconsin,John Engler of Michigan,Terry Branstad of Iowa,Mitch Daniels of Indiana, andJohn Boehner andJohn Kasich of Ohio.[23] Several members of Congress also were involved in the organization during its early years, including Rep.Jack Kemp of New York, Sen.Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Sen.James L. Buckley of New York, Rep.Phil Crane of Illinois, and RepEric Cantor of Virginia.[23][24]
In the 1980s, ALEC opposed U.S.disinvestment from South Africa, a movement to put pressure on the South African government to embark onnegotiations with a goal of dismantlingapartheid. In 1985, ALEC also published a memo that opposed "the current homosexual movement", portrayedhomosexuality as a result of a conscious choice, and said thatpedophilia was "one of the more dominant practices within the homosexual world".[25] ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling discussed the document in 2013 and said that ALEC does not draft model bills on social issues, and added, "I'm also sad that the critics would not acknowledge that organizations change over time."[25]
Duane Parde served as the executive director from December 1996 to January 2006.[26] Lori Roman, who served in the same role from 2006 to 2008, had an imperious style that led to financial difficulties and the departure of two thirds of ALEC's staff.[6] According toDolores Mertz, then a Democratic Iowa state representative and chairwoman of the ALEC board, ALEC became increasingly partisan during that period, with Roman once telling Mertz "she didn't like Democrats and she wasn't going to work with them."[27] Ron Scheberle became executive director in 2010 after acting as a lobbyist forVerizon Communications (previouslyGTE) and as an ALEC board member.[15]
By 2011, the number of ALEC legislative members had reached 2,000, including more than 25 percent of all state legislators nationwide. Approximately 1,000 bills based on ALEC language were being introduced in state legislatures every year, with approximately 20% of those bills being enacted.[6]
Prior to 2011, ALEC's practices and its ties to specific pieces of legislation were little known outside of political circles.[28] In July 2011,The Nation published a series of articles produced in collaboration with theCenter for Media and Democracy (CMD) that showcased some of the ALEC model bills and described ties to theKoch family, and CMD launched a website "ALEC Exposed" that documented more than 800 of ALEC model bills, the legislators and corporations that had helped to draft them, and the states that enacted them.[28]
The joint effort, and particularly its coverage of ALEC's push for toughvoter ID laws, prompted the advocacy groupColor of Change to launch a public campaign to pressure corporations to withdraw their ALEC memberships.[28]
The criticism among media outlets and political opponents was that ALEC was secretly subverting democratic institutions to further the aims of its corporate benefactors.[28] Oregon state representative and ALEC memberGene Whisnant said in December 2011, "We're getting a lot of attention saying we're trying to destroy the earth and everything on it."[6] ALEC staff and members promoted the organization as promoting public-private partnerships for the advancement of free market principles.[28] ALEC senior director of membership and development Chaz Cirame said, "The hook about some conspiracy or some secret organization is a lot better story than one about bringing state legislators together to talk about best practices around the country."[6]
In 2012, ALEC was the subject of anOccupy movement protest, anInternal Revenue Service complaint byCommon Cause, and calls for attorney general investigations in several states.[29]
Thekilling of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, led to increased public attention on"Stand-your-ground" gun laws that ALEC had supported.[28] Color of Change launched a new campaign in April to pressure ALEC corporate members to withdraw.[30] More than sixty corporations and foundations, includingCoca-Cola,Wendy's,Kraft Foods,McDonald's,Amazon.com,General Electric,Apple,Procter & Gamble,Walmart, theGates Foundation, and the medical insurance groupBlue Cross and Blue Shield dropped support of ALEC in the ensuing weeks or let their memberships lapse.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] Thirty-four legislative members also left ALEC.[39]
ALEC responded by releasing a statement describing efforts by its critics as a "campaign launched by a coalition of extreme liberal activists committed to silencing anyone who disagrees with their agenda".[28][40] Doug Clopp of Common Cause credited ALEC Exposed for the successful campaign, saying that "for 40 years you couldn't get the kind of accountability we're seeing now because ALEC, its members, its legislators, its bills were secret."[28]
FormerVisa Inc. lobbyist,[41]Newt Gingrich aide, andGOPAC executive director, Lisa B. Nelson, succeeded Scheberle as CEO of ALEC in 2014.[42]
In late 2014, a number of technology-oriented companies such asGoogle,Microsoft,Facebook,eBay, andYahoo! announced that they were ending their ties to ALEC. Multiple companies cited environmental concerns as a point of contention with the organization.[43] Google Executive ChairmanEric Schmidt remarked that ALEC was "just literally lying" aboutrecent global climate change.[44][45][46][47]Yahoo!,Uber, andLyft also announced withdrawals later that same week.[47][48][49]Occidental Petroleum andNorthrop Grumman also cut ties with ALEC.[50] In response to the departure of Northrop Grumman, an ALEC spokesperson said, "Like any other membership group, membership in ALEC ebbs and flows, and in 2014 we gained far more private-sector members than we lost."[51]T-Mobile andBP severed ties with ALEC in 2015.[52][53]
In 2023, ALEC held its fiftieth anniversary celebrations in Washington, D.C. The celebrations included a gala event at theNational Portrait Gallery.[54]
ALEC is a member of the advisory board ofProject 2025,[55] a collection ofconservative andright-wing policy proposals fromThe Heritage Foundation to reshape theUnited States federal government and consolidateexecutive power should theRepublican nominee win the2024 presidential election.[56]
As of December 2013, ALEC had more than 85 members of Congress and 14 sitting or former governors who were considered "alumni".[40] The majority of the ALEC legislative members belong to theRepublican Party.[6][10] Membership statistics presented at an ALEC board meeting in 2013 indicated that the 1,810 members represented 24% of all state legislative seats across the U.S., and that ALEC members represented 100% of the legislative seats in Iowa and South Dakota.[57] It also has approximately 300 corporate, foundation, and other private-sector members.[43] The chairmanship of ALEC is a rotating position, with a new legislator appointed to the position each year. As of 2012[update], 28 out of 33 of its chairs had been Republicans.[27]
ALEC has nine task forces that generate model bills that members may customize and introduce for debate in their own state legislatures. Private sector members effectively haveveto power over model bills drafted by the task forces.[14][15]
The ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force, which promotedstand your ground gun laws andvoter identification requirements, was disbanded in April 2012. Thereafter, theNational Center for Public Policy Research announced the creation of a voter ID task force to replace the one discontinued by ALEC.[58][59]
Bills drafted by the task forces must be approved by the ALEC board of directors, composed exclusively of legislators, before they are designated as model bills.[15] ALEC also has a Private Enterprise Advisory Council, which meets whenever the board of directors meets.[15] Council members include representatives from prominent corporations such asExxonMobil,Pfizer,AT&T,SAP,State Farm Insurance andKoch Industries.[60] ALEC statements assert that the council provides advice to the board of directors.[60] Former ALEC co-chairmanNoble Ellington said in 2011, "I really kind of think of us as one board," although he added, "It's certainly not our goal to sit there and do everything that business wants to have done."[15]
Day-to-day operations are run from ALEC'sArlington County, Virginia, office by an executive director and a staff of approximately 30. ALEC's bylaws specify that "... full membership shall be open to persons dedicated to the preservation of individual liberty, basic American values and institutions, productive free enterprise, and limited representative government, who support the purposes of ALEC, and who serve, or formerly serve, as members of a state or territorial legislature, the United States Congress, or similar bodies outside the United States."[61]
ALEC also has a Board of Scholars that advises staff and members. The board is composed ofArthur Laffer, an economist who served onRonald Reagan'sEconomic Policy Advisory Board; Victor Schwartz, chair of Public Policy atShook, Hardy & Bacon;[62]Richard Vedder, economics professor emeritus atOhio University and adjunct scholar at theAmerican Enterprise Institute; andRob Natelson, a constitutional scholar.[63]
ALEC also has ties to theState Policy Network (SPN), a national association of conservative andlibertarian think-tanks. SPN is a member of ALEC,[64] and ALEC is an associate member of the SPN.[65] SPN encourages its members to join ALEC,[66] and many members of SPN are also members of ALEC. Some of the think tanks in the SPN write model legislation, which then is introduced at ALEC private meetings.[67] ALEC is "SPN's sister organisation" according toThe Guardian.[68] ALEC is also a member of theAtlas Network, a global organization of free-market think tanks.[69]
As of 2012, ALEC is registered as a charity in 37 states.[29]
The ALEC website states that its goal is to advance "the fundamental principles of free-market enterprise, limited government, and federalism".[70] In 2003,Donald Ray Kennard, then a Louisiana state representative and ALEC national chairman, said, "We are a very, very conservative organization... We're just espousing what we really believe in."[14] Craig Horn, a North Carolina state representative and ALEC member, said of ALEC in 2013, "It's a lightning rod organization because it has a decidedly conservative bent—there’s no doubt about it."[71]
Although ALEC originally focused on social issues such asabortion, which it opposed, in more recent years[when?] the group has focused more on business and regulatory matters.[6][14] According toJohn Nichols ofThe Nation, ALEC's agenda "seems to be dictated at almost every turn by multinational corporations. It's to clear the way for lower taxes, less regulation, a lot of protection against lawsuits, [and] ALEC is very, very active in [the] opening up of areas via privatization for corporations to make more money, particularly in places you might not usually expect like public education."[72]
ABrookings Institution study of state legislation introduced in 2011–2012 found that ALEC model bills that became law were linked most often to controversial social and economic issues. The study concluded that this phenomenon has hurt ALEC because, "Dirtying its hands with social issues undermines ALEC's ability to exercise influence over fiscal ones."[73]
According to research by Columbia University political scientist Alex Hertel-Fernandez, ALEC model legislation during the late 1970s focused primarily on social issues, such as abortion, drugs, gun laws, religious freedom and anti-busing.[74] By the 1980s, the focus was primarily on criminal justice.[74] By the 1990s, the focus was overwhelmingly on business deregulation.[74]
Stand-your-ground laws expanded to 30 states through the support of ALEC, after Florida passed its law in 2005.[75][76] After the Florida law had been passed, ALEC adopted a model bill with the same wording.[4] In the wake of thekilling of Trayvon Martin in 2012, ALEC's support for Stand Your Ground laws ultimately led to the departure of high-profile corporate members such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Bank of America, and General Motors.[40]
After Obama's victory in the2008 presidential election, ALEC's internal publication (which it provides to paying members) asserted, without evidence, that voter fraud contributed to his victory. ALEC said that groups likeACORN had engaged in voter-registration fraud whereby fake voter registrations were submitted.[77]
Prior to 2012, legislation based on ALEC model bills was introduced in many states to mandate or strengthen requirements that voters produce state-issued photographic identification. The bills were passed and signed into law in six states.[6] Voter identification bills introduced in 34 states would have made voting more difficult for students, the elderly, and the poor.[15] According to research by Columbia University political scientist Alex Hertel-Fernandez, "Of the 62 ID laws states considered during the 2011 and 2012 legislative sessions, more than half were proposed by lawmakers who... were all participants in the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. In exchange for their payments of $50 per year in membership dues, those legislators had access to a draft proposal for strict voter ID requirements".[78]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(August 2014) |
The "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act", an Arizona law commonly known as "SB 1070", was drafted during an ALEC meeting in December 2009 and became an ALEC model bill.[79] Enacted in 2010, SB 1070 was described as the toughestillegal immigration law in the U.S.[80] Portions of SB 1070 were held by the Supreme Court to be preempted by federal law in 2012.[81]
Bills similar to SB 1070 were passed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Utah, and have been introduced in 17 other states.[15]
A 2018 study characterized ALEC as highly influential in the spread of policies intended to curbsanctuary cities (jurisdictions where immigration enforcement is not a law enforcement priority).[82]
The organization publishes aLabor Reform Policy document which it says champions "worker freedom". The document advocates forright-to-work laws, endorses the Supreme Court'sJanus v. AFSCME decision that allowed public sector workers to choose whether or not to pay union dues, and contains state-by-state fact sheets on the prevailing minimum wage, union landscape, and public and private sector union membership rates.[83]
In 2011, longtime ALEC member and Wisconsin GovernorScott Walker helped passWisconsin Act 10, which implemented an ALEC policy of restricting the collective bargaining rights of state and local government employees.[84]
ALEC's model bills include a Resolution to Align Pay and Benefits of Public Sector Workers with Private Sector Workers, which would mandate that "retirement benefit obligations to all state and municipal workers shall be immediately adjusted to a level comparable to that of private-sector workers."[85] Another ALEC model bill is a Paycheck Protection Act, which would require that unions establish separate segregated funds for political activities, and prohibit the collection of union dues for those activities without the express authorization of the employee.[86] ALEC has also drafted a model law called the Living Wage Mandate Preemption Act. It prohibits a local municipality, city, county or township from enacting a living wage that is greater than the state's minimum wage.[87]
One of ALEC's model bills is the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act", which classifies certain property destruction, acts of intimidation, andcivil disobedience by environmental andanimal rights activists asterrorism. This model bill appeared across the U.S. in various forms since it was drafted in 2003. The federal "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act" has notable similarities, and at points almost verbatim language, to ALEC's model "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act". The Senate version of the "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act" was sponsored by SenatorJames Inhofe, a long-time member of ALEC.[88]
Manyag-gag bills are also similar to ALEC's model "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act", which would make it against the law to film, videotape, or take photographs on livestock farms in order to "defame the facility or its owner". People found to be in violation would be put in a "terrorist registry".[89][90]
According toGoverning magazine, "ALEC has been a major force behind both privatizing state prison space and keeping prisons filled."[14] ALEC has developed model bills advancing "tough on crime" initiatives, including "truth in sentencing" and "three strikes" laws.[91] Critics argue that by funding and participating in ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force,private prison companies directly influence legislation for tougher, longer sentences.Corrections Corporation of America andWackenhut Corrections, two of the largest for-profit prison companies in the U.S. (as of 2004[update]), have been contributors to ALEC.[92] ALEC also has worked to pass state laws to allow the creation of private-sector for-profit prisons.[93]
Marie Gottschalk, professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, said that ALEC has played a major role in "liberating the private sector to employ penal labor and expand the privatization of corrections."[94] EconomistPaul Krugman wrote in 2012 that ALEC had "a special interest in privatization—that is, on turning the provision of public services, from schools to prisons, over to for-profit corporations," and as such played a significant role in the "penal–industrial complex". As an example, Krugman wrote that theAmerican Bail Coalition had declared publicly that ALEC was its "life preserver."[95]
By 2013, ALEC disbanded the task force that favored harsh sentencing and supported reducingprison overcrowding and lowering the costs associated with the criminal justice system.[91] At that time, ALEC promoted investing taxpayer money in alternatives to incarceration, such as electronic monitoring.[91]
ALEC pushed forderegulation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. Maneuvering between two private sector members, the former energy trader,Enron, and the utilities trade association,Edison Electric Institute (EEI), resulted in EEI withdrawing its ALEC membership. Enron's position on the matter was adopted by ALEC and subsequently, by many state legislatures.[14]
In 2011, ALEC adopted model legislation having to do with public "right to know" laws regarding what fluids are used inhydraulic fracturing (also known as "fracking") that was promoted as a victory for the right of consumers to know about potentialdrinking water contaminants, in spite of the fact that the bill contained "loopholes that would allow energy companies to withhold the names of certain fluid contents, for reasons including that they have been deemed trade secrets".[10]
ALEC has promoted a model bill that called plans in 2011 by the federalEnvironmental Protection Agency to regulategreenhouse gas emissions, a "train wreck" that would harm the economy, and it has supported efforts by various states to withdraw from regionalclimate change compacts.[6] In 2013, their resolution stated "Alec is very concerned about the potential economic impact of greenhouse gas regulation on electricity prices and the harm EPA regulations may have on the economic recovery".[96] ALEC also has promoted a model bill that would call on the federal government to approve the proposedKeystone XL project, which would extend asynthetic crude oilpipeline fromoil sands in Alberta, Canada to Nebraska.[97][98]
In 2013, ALEC planned legislation that would weaken state clean energy regulations and penalize homeowners who install their own solar panels andredistribute the electricity back into the grid, whom ALEC has described as "freeriders" because they do not pay for the infrastructure costs of recirculating their generated power.[96]
Also in 2013, ALEC adopted a model bill saying that the role of human activity in causingclimate change was uncertain, that man-made climate change could be "deleterious, neutral or possibly beneficial," and that the cost of regulatinggreenhouse gas emissions could cause "great economic dislocation." ALEC also has invitedclimate change deniers, such asCraig Idso, to speak at its national meetings. In 2015Common Cause and theLeague of Conservation Voters pointed to such behavior to accuse ALEC ofdenying climate change. ALEC responded by threatening legal action, denying that ALEC supports climate change denial, and saying it has more recently welcomed debate on the subject and supportedrenewable energy andcarbon tax policies to curb global warming.[99]
Several corporations have announced that their affiliations with ALEC will be allowed to lapse over disagreement with the group's opposition to action on climate change. These includeFord,[100]BP,[101]Microsoft,Google andShell. A statement by Shell said "its stance on climate change is clearly inconsistent with our own...We have long recognized both the importance of the climate challenge and the critical role energy has in determining quality of life for people across the world." An ALEC spokesperson responded "Climate change activists have conflated our opposition to the government picking winners and losers as climate change denial."[102]
In December 2016,Tesla Motors (not an ALEC member) hosted an ALEC event in Washington, D.C., where ALEC promoted its "Energy Innovation Project", that was partly funded by theClearPath Foundation. The project guides states toward innovation and entrepreneurship surrounding U.S. energy resources.[103][104]
ALEC has promoted draft bills for restrictions onsingle-use plasticdrinking straws. The draft bill contains exemptions forfast food andfast casual restaurants, and preempts municipalities from imposing stricter regulations.[105]
AT&T and Verizon drafted ALEC model legislation prohibiting public broadband services and "sunsetting" thePublic Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).[106][unreliable source?] Names of its 172-member task force, the agenda of a December 2010 meeting, and its minutes that included a resolution regardingtraffic pumping were published byCommon Cause.[107] In February 2014, Senate Bill 304 in Kansas was introduced, "prohibiting cities and counties from building public broadband networks and providing internet service to businesses and citizens".[108] The bill contains an "underserved area" exemption for public wi-fi, but the exemption criterion is not met anywhere in Kansas. The city ofChanute, Kansas, which has led broadband development since the 1980s, financed through its public electricity company, including free wi-fi in its college, hospital, and public spaces, and a 4g mobile data network, felt under attack by the bill.[108] The bill failed.[109]
ALEC opposes theindividual health insurance mandate enacted by thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as the "ACA" or "Obamacare"). ALEC filed anamicus brief inNational Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, urging theSupreme Court to strike down theindividual mandate of the ACA. In 2011, ALEC published the "State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare", which has served as a road map forrepeal efforts.[6] ALEC also has drafted a variety of model bills designed toblock implementation of the law.[6]
In August 2013, ALEC approved the "Health Care Freedom Act" as a model bill that aims to striphealth insurers of their licenses to do business at the federalhealth care exchanges of ACA if they accepted any subsidies under the system. Sean Riley, the head of the ALEC Health and Human Services task force, said the aim of the proposed legislation was to protect businesses from the ACA'semployer mandate.[7]Slate journalistDavid Weigel has called the bill a "sneak attack" on the ACA.[110] Health insurance experts have predicted that if the bill were widely adopted by Republican-controlled states, it would seriously disrupt the exchange and threaten the ACA.[7]Wendell Potter, former health insurance executive and CMD fellow, said, "You cannot build the healthcare system based on the free market unless you have subsidies. If they are taken away the whole thing collapses."[7]
In 1989, ALEC published the draft "HIV Assault Act", which made it a crime for someone who is knowingly infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) to have sex with a person who is not infected, without disclosing the HIV infection. The bill made having such sex without disclosure a criminal offense, even when HIV was not transmitted. Alan Smith, who worked on the draft, said the proposed law was a response to worries that people with AIDS were deliberately infecting others, "to make sure more people got it so more research money could be devoted to curing it".[8]
In the 1980s, ALEC pushed anti-gay propaganda, and urged legislators to oppose attempts to "homosexualize society."[111] ALEC said that homosexual relations were "probably some of the most destructive and degrading institutions in America today". ALEC claimed homosexuality caused psychological harm, led to pedophilia, and that homosexuals sought to recruit the young.[111]
An investigation by theSouthern Poverty Law Center andThe Center for Media and Democracy found that ALEC is part of a coalition of groups called Back to Neutral who oppose "'woke' corporations that act to diversify their leadership or take a public stance on social and democracy issues." According to the SPLC, the Back to the Neutral coalition includes "right-wing think tanks, advocacy groups, media organizations and two anti-LGBTQ hate groups."[112]
In 1986, while ALEC was funded by thetobacco industry, it disputed the science linking tobacco smoke tohealth harms.[113]
In July 2012,The Guardian reported that ALEC had taken action to opposeplain cigarette packaging laws outside the United States, including the UK and Australia.[114] Karla Jones, a task force director for ALEC, said that the brands were the corporations' most valuable assets. ALEC stated that generic cigarette packaging increased cigarette consumption, rather than reduced it.[114] ALEC's advocacy against "plain packaging" of tobacco products was cited as partial motivation for an academic study on the effectiveness of plain packaging, which found that "plain packaging can reduce positive perceptions of smoking and dissuade tobacco use."[115]
ALEC has worked to privatize public education,[116] frequently promoting model bills that expand public-private partnerships in education.[6]
It has provided model legislation that led to the enactment ofaggressive personal and corporate income tax cuts in Kansas in 2012.[117] GovernorSam Brownback, who promoted and signed the legislation, was advised by thesupply-side economist and ALEC board member,Arthur Laffer, who said at the time that the cuts would pay for themselves and lead to increased growth.[118] By fall 2014, however, the tax cuts had led to the depletion of a $700 million budget surplus, and although Kansas had experienced 6.6% job growth from 2010 to 2013, that figure lagged behind the nation's overall 8.8% job growth for the same period.[119]
It also has promoted a model bill thatlimits liability forparent companies that acquiresubsidiaries responsible forasbestos-related injuries.[15]
In addition to providing a forum for the drafting of model legislation that may be adapted easily, ALEC also provides assistance and training to its legislative members. The Oregon co-chairman of ALEC,Gene Whisnant, described the organization in 2012 as a "great resource" for part-time legislators with limited staff resources.[29]Mark Pocan, a Democratic congressman from Wisconsin and former member of theWisconsin Assembly, said in 2012 that ALEC advises members, "'Don't just introduce a single piece of legislation, introduce 14.' That way people can't oppose any one bill."[18] At one ALEC meeting, media experts gave messaging advice and taught legislators how to useTwitter to move ALEC bills through their chambers.[18] Attendants also offered to writeop-ed articles in local newspapers for the legislators and to put lawmakers in touch with other subject matter experts.[18]
AlthoughGoverning Magazine reported in 2003 that ALEC meetings traditionally had been open to the public,[14] news organizations have reported since then that many meetings are held in private. ALEC policy seminars are open to reporters and other nonmembers, but public conference agendas, unlike those distributed to members, do not include the names of presenters, the lists of legislative and private-sector board chairs, nor the corporate sponsors of the seminars.[13][15] Task force meetings and bill-drafting sessions are held behind closed doors.[13][15] Bloggers fromThinkProgress andAlterNet were removed from conferences for attempting to take photographs of such sessions andtweeting the names of ALEC members who participated.[15] In 2013,The Washington Post columnistDana Milbank was turned away from the ALEC annual policy summit and told by spokesperson Bill Meierling that subcommittee meetings and task force meetings were closed-door. Meierling said ALEC was introducing transparency gradually, but it "can't just kick the doors open".[120] Shortly after the Milbank incident, theBrookings Institution reported that ALEC's activities during its closed-door meetings are "still a mystery", and that "ALEC could have a tremendous influence over lawmaking in the American states, or it could have none at all—we just don't know."[73] In 2014, Nebraska legislator and former ALEC memberJeremy Nordquist described ALEC as a "faceless organization", saying, "It's allowing these corporate interests to just duck and cover, and hide from really stepping into the public square and putting their ideas forward."[121]
ALEC does not disclose its membership list nor the origins of its model bills.[9][43] Lawmakers generally propose ALEC-drafted bills in their states without disclosing the ALEC authorship.[6][14] For instance, in 2012The Star-Ledger analyzed more than 100 bills and regulations previously proposed by the administration ofNew Jersey governorChris Christie and found a pattern of similarities with ALEC model bills that was "too strong to be accidental". The connections were based "not on similarity of broad ideas, but on specific numbers, time frames, benchmarks and language". Legislative staffers in the Christie administration had "mined ALEC for advice on budgetary matters, Medicaid changes and privatizing government services...beginning in the earliest days of Christie's governorship".William Schluter, vice chairman of the New Jersey Ethics Commission and a former Republican state senator, said there was a "clear connection between ALEC and the proposed New Jersey legislation". A Christie spokesperson denied any connection between the two.[13]
One exception to this pattern came in November 2011, when former Florida State RepresentativeRachel Burgin introduced legislation to call on the federal government to reduce its corporate tax rate. She mistakenly included theboilerplate "WHEREAS, it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty..."[28][122] When the inclusion of the ALEC mission statement was discovered, the bill was withdrawn and resubmitted without the phrase.The American Prospect journalist Abby Rapoport wrote that the incident "seems to confirm what many have assumed was occurring in state legislatures—and while Burgin's bill was hardly a major piece of legislation, ALEC's reach in important policy areas seems hard to overestimate."[123]
Critics sometimes argue that by adopting ALEC model bills without disclosure, state officials are handing off the duty of doing their own work to a business-centered lobby.[13] In early 2012, Democratic lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin introduced the "ALEC Accountability Act of 2012", which would have required corporations to disclose ALEC funding.[124]Arizona House of Representatives Assistant Minority LeaderSteve Farley, sponsor of the Arizona bill, argued that corporations have the right to present arguments, but not secretly.[125]
Prior to 2013, access to ALEC model bills was restricted, and its website required a password to access them.[13][14] On July 13, 2011, theCenter for Media and Democracy, in cooperation withThe Nation, posted 850 model bills created during a 30-year period, and created a web project,ALEC Exposed, to host these model bills.[6][126][127] The leak has been credited with triggering critical coverage about ALEC in both left-wing and mainstream media outlets.[6] ALEC subsequently published its model bills on its website,[128] although the Brookings Institution wrote in 2013 that there was "reason to believe" its list was incomplete.[73]
On October 1, 2012,Common Cause, a liberalpolitical advocacy group, along with theCenter for Media and Democracy (CMD), filed a lawsuit under a Wisconsin open records law alleging five Republican lawmakers did not disclose whether they had used personal e-mail accounts for correspondence with ALEC.[129] In one instance, a Wisconsin legislative representative had requested of ALEC in June 2012 that all correspondence be sent to his personal account.[130] According to CMD, the legislators settled the suit in late October 2012, allowing their personal e-mails to be searched for such contacts and paying $2,500 in court costs as part of the settlement.[131]
In 2013, ALEC's North Carolina state chairman Jason Saine described the organization as "a resource for experts you can tap that follow a philosophy that you do from a less government viewpoint", and said, "It's not just some big secretive organization that it's been portrayed."[71]
The level of influence that the ALEC private-sector members hold over its public-sector members has been controversial. According toThe New York Times, special interests have effectively turned ALEC's lawmaker members into "stealth lobbyists" for conservative causes.[10]The Guardian has described ALEC as "a dating agency for Republican state legislators and big corporations," to set rightwing legislative agendas.[7] TheFree Lance-Star has reported that ALEC had become "one of Big Business's most effective lobbying tools".[132]Bloomberg Businessweek described the organization as a "bill laundry" that "offers companies substantial benefits that seem to have little to do with ideology."[15]Chris Taylor, a Democratic Wisconsin state assemblyman who attended an ALEC conference in 2013, said, "In my observation, it was the corporations and the right-wing think tanks driving the agendas. Corporations have as big a say as the legislators in the model legislation that is adopted."[133]
ALEC legislative members generally deny being overly influenced by the organization or its model legislation, and argue that corporate input in the drafting process helps to promote business growth.[6][134] "ALEC is unique in the sense that it puts legislators and companies together and they create policy collectively," saidScott Pruitt, then an Oklahoma state representative and ALEC task force chair.[14]Vance Wilkins, a former Republican speaker of theVirginia House of Delegates and ALEC member, said in 2002, "Just because business writes a bill doesn't make it bad. We get bills from all angles. And we still have to debate the issue."[132] Whisnant, ALEC's Oregon co-chair, acknowledged in 2012 that corporations sometimes write model bills to promote their own interests and added, "But that doesn't mean I'll support them."[29]Harvey Morgan, another former Virginia delegate and ALEC member, said of ALEC conferences, "You know before you go that the big-business view will prevail, and that's not necessarily bad. I still would like them to be a little more objective."[132]
Alan Rosenthal, a formerRutgers Universitypolitical science professor and expert on state legislatures and lobbying,[135] said in 2012, "Legislators don't sit down with a quill pen and draft legislation. I think legislators should have the right to turn to wherever they want to get the ideas they prefer... I have some confidence that they're not being flimflammed."[29]
Experts agree that, regardless of its propriety, the ALEC model has been very effective.Bloomberg Politics reported in 2014 that ALEC had "no equal" in accessing conservative policymakers.[43] Rosenthal said of ALEC, "You've had the interest groups having access and sitting on other task forces, but here you've really perfected it... You've not only got them gaining access and interacting with legislators but you have them shaping policy together. It seems to me that's a pretty major advance."[14] Edwin Bender, executive director of the nonpartisan[136][137]OpenSecrets has said, "What makes ALEC different is its effectiveness in not just bringing the people together but selling a piece of legislation that was written by the industry and for the industry and selling it as a piece of mainstream legislation."[14]
In April 2012,Common Cause filed a complaint with theInternal Revenue Service objecting to ALEC's tax status as a nonprofit organization and alleged that lobbying accounted for more than 60% of its expenditures. ALEC formally denied lobbying,[9][138] although Delores Mertz, who had previously served as chairwoman of the ALEC board, said she was "concerned about the lobbying that's going on, especially with [ALEC's] 501(c)3 status".[27] Reporting on the allegations,Bloomberg Businessweek compared ALEC's work to that of lobbyists, noting, "part of ALEC's mission is to present industry-backed legislation as grass-roots work," and that being a nonprofit rather than a lobby group allows deductibility of membership dues and freedom from disclosing the names of legislators who attend its educational seminars or the executives who give presentations to those legislators.[9] William Schluter, vice chairman of the New Jersey Ethics Commission and a former Republican state senator, said of ALEC's activities, "When you get right down to it, this is not different from lobbying. It is lobbying. ...Any kind of large organization that adds to public policy or has initiatives involving public policy should be disclosed—not only their name, but who is backing them."[13] According toGoverning magazine, ALEC legislators often have their travel expenses paid as "scholarships" and are "wined and dined and golf-coursed" by private sector members.[6] In July 2013, Common Cause submitted a supplemental brief to the IRS complaining about these practices.[139]
ALEC responded to the original Common Cause complaint by denying it engaged in lobbying, while saying that liberal groups were attacking ALEC because "they don't have a comparable group that is as effective as ALEC in enacting policies into law."[140] As of 2015[update], the IRS investigation remained open.[141]
Statutes in Colorado, South Carolina, and Indiana exempt ALEC, specifically by name, from having to register as a lobbyist and report lobbying expenditures.[142] In 2013, ALEC created a501(c)(4) organization called the "Jeffersonian Project" that, according toThe Guardian, "would allow Alec to be far more overt in its lobbying activities than its current charitable status as a 501(c)(3)".[40]
As of 2011[update], corporation, think tank, and trade group members accounted for almost 99% of ALEC's $7 million budget.[15] Legislators pay $100 in biennial membership dues, or $50 per year, while non-legislators pay $7,000 to $25,000 to join, and more to participate in the task forces.[6][13][71] In 2010,NPR reported that tax records showed that corporations had collectively paid as much as $6 million a year to ALEC.[143] ALEC's total revenue in 2011 was $9 million.[71]
In 2010, ALEC received $100,000 each fromAT&T,Allergan, andRJ Reynolds Tobacco Company to be named as "president level" sponsors at its annual meeting.[15] Eleven other members, including Pfizer (PFE) and theInstitute for Legal Reform, paid $50,000 each to be named as "chairman level" sponsors.[15] As of 2011[update],Altria, theBlue Cross Blue Shield Association, andBP America were also $50,000 chairman level sponsors.[15]
ExxonMobil's foundation donated $30,000 to ALEC in both 2005 and 2006. Alan Jeffers, an ExxonMobil spokesman, said the company paid $39,000 in dues in 2010 and sponsored a reception at the annual meeting in San Diego for $25,000. In August 2011, Exxon spent $45,000 to sponsor a workshop on natural gas.[144] According to theCenter For Public Integrity, ALEC received $150,000 from Charles and David Koch in 2011.[145]Greenpeace claims that ALEC has received $525,858 from Koch foundations between 2005 and 2011.[146]
Corporate members also pay $3,000 to $10,000 for seats on task forces.[15]
According to a December 2013 article inThe Guardian, ALEC faced a funding shortfall after "losing more than a third of its projected income" when some 400 state legislators left its membership, along with more than 60 corporate donors.[40] The organization's 2013 tax return indicated a 13% drop in total revenue from $8.4 million to $7.3 million.[147] On its 2016 tax return, ALEC reported an increase in total revenue from $9.0 million the prior year to $10.3 million.[148]
[ALEC] provide[s] direct assistance to state legislators and firms eager to minimize any state government engagement in environmental protection. ALEC's membership base includes nearly one-third of all sitting state legislators and most of its resources are derived from corporations and trade associations. It offers regular conferences and training sessions but is perhaps best known for drafting model bills that can easily be adopted by an individual state and introduced into a legislature.
This sharp turn in American law—expanding the right to defend one's home from attack into a more general right to meet force with force in any public place—began in Florida in 2005 and has spread to more than 30 other states as a result of a campaign by the National Rifle Association and a corporate-backed group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which promotes conservative bills.
... shows Nelson telling the private audience of activists and lawmakers: "Four or five years ago we had a session just like this, and out of that, there are a number of really good organizations. It's not our day job to fight that issue, but we have a new coalition called the Back to Neutral coalition that is really, really active. ... We are certainly a part of that." ... The Back to Neutral coalition brings together right-wing think tanks, advocacy groups, media organizations and two anti-LGBTQ hate groups, ...
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
