Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
I’ve been gathering information for a couple of weeks for a post about ALEC—the American Legislative Exchange Council—an organization that I had never heard of until earlier this year when I was doing research for some of my previous Turley Blawg posts. I wanted to write up an extensive and cohesive post for you—but I’ll be on my way to the hospital shortly. My daughter is due to deliver my first grandchild—and she wants me with her for the momentous event. I thought I’d provide you with excerpts from a few articles, videos, and links to a number of other articles about ALEC, a behind the scenes organization that helps corporations provide state legislators with model legislation at meetings and conferences that the legislators take back to their states.
Recently, The Nation—in collaboration with the Center for Media and Democracy—did a series of investigative reports and developed a website called ALEC Exposed, which has a wealth of information about ALEC.
From John Nichols’s introduction to the ALEC Exposed reports in The Nation:
Founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich and other conservative activists frustrated by recent electoral setbacks, ALEC is a critical arm of the right-wing network of policy shops that, with infusions of corporate cash, has evolved to shape American politics. Inspired by Milton Friedman’s call for conservatives to “develop alternatives to existing policies [and] keep them alive and available,” ALEC’s model legislation reflects long-term goals: downsizing government, removing regulations on corporations and making it harder to hold the economically and politically powerful to account. Corporate donors retain veto power over the language, which is developed by the secretive task forces. The task forces cover issues from education to health policy. ALEC’s priorities for the 2011 session included bills to privatize education, break unions, deregulate major industries, pass voter ID laws and more. In states across the country they succeeded, with stacks of new laws signed by GOP governors like Ohio’s John Kasich and Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, both ALEC alums.
From NPR Shaping State Laws With Little Scrutiny byLaura Sullivan
Only 28 people work in ALEC’s dark, quiet headquarters in Washington, D.C. Michael Bowman, senior director of policy, explains that the little-known organization’s staff isn’t writing the bills. The real authors are the group’s members — a mix of state legislators and some of the biggest corporations in the country.
“Most of the bills are written by outside sources and companies, attorneys, [and legislative] counsels,” Bowman says.
Here’s how it works: ALEC is a membership organization. State legislators pay $50 a year to belong. Private corporations can join, too. The tobacco company Reynolds American Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp. and drug-maker Pfizer Inc. are among the members. They pay tens of thousands of dollars a year. Tax records show that corporations collectively pay as much as $6 million a year.
With that money, the 28 people in the ALEC offices throw three annual conferences. The companies get to sit around a table and write “model bills” with the state legislators, who then take them home to their states.
Lisa Graves Comments on Legislation Drafted by Secretive Corporate-Lawmaker Coalition, ALEC (Democracy Now)
Links to all of the ALEC Exposed articles in The Nation:
ALEC Exposed Introduction by John Nichols
ALEC Exposed: Business Domination Inc. by Joel Rogers and Laura Dresser
ALEC Exposed: Sabotaging Healthcare by Wendell Potter (The Nation/Wendell Potter)
ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection by Lisa Graves
ALEC Exposed: Starving Public Schools byJulie Underwood (The Nation/Common Dreams)
ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections by John Nichols
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From ALEC: The Voice of Corporate Special Interests In State Legislatures (People for the American Way)
Who Founded and Funds ALEC?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was founded in 1973 by Paul Weyrich, who helped build a nationwide right-wing political infrastructure following the reelection of Richard Nixon. In the same year, he helped establish the Heritage Foundation, now one of the most prominent right-wing policy institutes in the country. One year later, Weyrich founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress, the predecessor of the Free Congress Foundation. In 1979, he co-founded and coined the Moral Majority with Jerry Falwell, and in 1981 he helped establish the ultraconservative Council on National Policy.
ALEC’s major funders include Exxon Mobil, the Scaife family (Allegheny Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation), the Coors family (Castle Rock Foundation), Charles Koch (Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation), the Bradley family (The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation) and the Olin family (John M. Olin Foundation). These organizations consistently finance right-wing think tanks and political groups.
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From ALEC Bills Expose Corporate Drive to Advance Business Over Public Interest (Common Cause)
“The ALEC documents reveal an organization in which corporate executives sit side-by-side with elected representatives behind closed doors, drafting and then voting as equals on `model’ bills that once approved by ALEC are introduced in legislatures around the country,” Edgar said. “I’m sure millions of voters will be interested to learn that their state senators and representatives are working to enhance the bottom lines of ALEC-connected companies and trade groups, all of which spend millions of dollars annually to bankroll legislative campaigns. Our preliminary analysis indicates companies in ALEC’s leadership put about $330 million into state politics from 2001-10.”
Edgar said ALEC allows firms to play a direct role in writing and advancing legislation that enhances their bottom lines. For example, one member, the Corrections Corporation of America, was part of the drafting process for a “model” immigration law that makes it easier for state and local authorities to lock up suspected illegal immigrants; CCA would house many of those detainees at prisons it runs under contract with state governments.
In other cases, ALEC’s corporate members are lending their support to legislation far removed from their legitimate business interests.
“Consumers, and stockholders, may wonder why part of the money they put into Coca-Cola and its products is being used to push legislation that would give tax subsidies to private schools, or why the proceeds of their purchases from Intuit, a software company, are helping to advance legislation that would block local governments from regulating pesticides, “ Edgar asserted.
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From Koch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws by Alison Fitzgerald (Bloomberg):
Koch Industries Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among companies that would benefit from almost identical energy legislation introduced in state capitals from Oregon to New Mexico to New Hampshire — and that’s by design.
The energy companies helped write the legislation at a meeting organized by a group they finance, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Washington-based policy institute known as ALEC.
The corporations, both ALEC members, took a seat at the legislative drafting table beside elected officials and policy analysts by paying a fee between $3,000 and $10,000, according to documents obtained by Bloomberg News.
The opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws legally through ALEC covers a wide range of issues from energy to taxes to agriculture. The price for participation is an ALEC membership fee of as much as $25,000 — and the few extra thousands to join one of the group’s legislative-writing task forces. Once the “model legislation” is complete, it’s up to ALEC’s legislator members to shepherd it into law.
“This is just another hidden way for corporations to buy their way into the legislative process,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, a Washington-based group that advocates for limits on money in politics.
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Who’s Really Writing States’ Legislation? (NPR)
National Chairman Of ALEC Responds To Report (NPR)
Fiercely Pro-Business Group’s Influence On Statehouses Draws Scrutiny (NPR)
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ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council
Lawrence O’Donnell on the buying of democracy by major corporations – The Last Word (May 17th, 2011)
Countdown with Keith Olbermann ALEC & Corporate Influence with John Nichols
Nation Magazine Writer John Nichols Discusses the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
Secretive organization behind pro-corporate legislation [NBC 7-15-2011]
Paul Weyrich, a fonuder of ALEC on the Goo-Goo Syndrome (proper audio/video synchronization)
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ALEC Exposed Website (The Center for Media and Democracy)
About Alec Exposed (The Center for Media and Democracy)
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NOTE: I apologize if there is some duplication of information.
HenMan,
Good luck in Wisconsin tomorrow.
Top Companies Claim To Fight Global Warming, But Sponsor ALEC’s Climate Denial
http://thinkprogress.org/green/2011/08/08/289553/companies-sponsor-alec-climate-denial/
Excerpt:
The fight against global warming pollution requires the investment of everyone, including the world’s multinational corporate giants. Many companies have taken official stances on climate pollution, pledging to reduce their greenhouse footprint in order to reduce the threat of a destabilized climate.
However, a number of these same companies are sponsoring toxic, far-right denial of climate science. The American Legislative Exchange Council pushes an extremist denier agenda throughout the United States, funded in secret by corporations. ThinkProgress has acquired a list of the sponsors of ALEC’s 2011 annual meeting, held last week in New Orleans, LA.
ALEC denies that global warming is causing glaciers to retreat or sea level to rise. Not only does ALEC deny the threat of climate change, they even argue that “substantial global warming is likely to be of benefit to the United States”:
“There is no ‘scientific consensus’ that global warming will cause damaging climate change.”
“Even substantial global warming is likely to be of benefit to the United States.” [ALEC, Energy, Environment, and Economics, 5th Edition]
At the annual meeting, ALEC hosted a session touting the “benefits of carbon dioxide.” ALEC also supports the repeal of Section 526, which prohibits federal purchases of high-carbon fuels.
The radical anti-science agenda of ALEC stands in direct contravention to the official public policies of its funders, which include top health care companies like Bayer, Merck, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson, and top energy companies like Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Entergy:
Allergan: Specifically as part of its commitment to the UN Global Compact, Allergan has committed to the UN Global Compact Caring for Climate Program and the CEO Water Mandate.
Altria: Altria is committed to reducing the environmental impact of its businesses. Reducing carbon emissions is one way to do so. Our companies rely on agricultural products and we are keenly aware of the balance of nature and how climate change could alter that balance.
AT&T: Climate change is a fact, and the scientific evidence so far seems to implicate greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, as the cause of climate change.
Bayer: The anthropogenic component of the greenhouse effect (which is adding to the natural effect) is what is changing our current climate. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased by 1/3 since pre-industrial times as a result of human activity. The anthropogenic contribution to climate change has led to a temperature increase of 0.8 °C over the last 130 years.
Chesapeake Energy: The fact is we can, and should, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions because the risks associated with failing to do so are simply too great.
Chevron: Chevron shares the concerns of governments and the public about climate change and recognizes that the use of fossil fuels to meet the world’s energy needs is a contributor to an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth’s atmosphere.
ConocoPhillips: ConocoPhillips recognizes that human activity, including the burning of fossil fuels, is contributing to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that can lead to adverse changes in global climate.
CSX: CSXT understands that what’s good for the environment is good for its customers, its employees and its bottom line. That’s why the company is developing long-term, comprehensive climate change strategies and is leading the way to cleaner air through increased fuel efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Dow: Providing humanity with a sustainable energy supply while addressing climate change is the most urgent environmental issue our society faces.
Entergy: We are virtually certain that climate change is occurring, and occurring because of man’s activities. We’re virtually certain the probability distribution curve is all bad.
Security at the big ALEC meeting in New Orleans threw some reporters from Think Progress out, roughing them up in the process.
I found this exchange in the comments amusing:
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/05/288405/alec-security-attacks-thinkprogress/
I caught this yesterday morning,this is the short version.I think it goes along with the post.
THANKS!!
Elaine-
I haven’t had time to read this post yet- I’ll get to it tomorrow. I’m still totally bummed out by this article I got from an eniobob link yesterday.
http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10880/alec-bills-wisconsin
Elaine-
Early returns from a suburb just North of Milwaukee:
Sandy Pasch 1
Alberta Darling 0
In other words, I voted early at 3 P.M. today- it’s still legal. I had the unpleasant experience of watching the African-American woman ahead of me disenfranchised by the new voter suppression law. She just moved to my suburb, but hasn’t lived here for 30 days yet. In the November, 2010 election that would have been no problem. Now she can’t vote except in her old precinct, which might not even have a recall election. Another triumph for the Fascists.
There were 5 people behind me, which is the most I’ve seen voting early- I think that’s a sign of a large turnout, which is a good thing. People turn out when they are angry, and there are plenty of people in Wisconsin angry as hell.
tempest in a teapot. associations have been writing laws for their constituents for years.
And there are plenty of far left orginizations which do the same thing. Bottom line though is that representatives at the local, state and federal level should draft their own laws with no outside help.
Maybe then we would have much fewer laws and more freedom.
Great effort, Elaine. I had never heard of ALEC either until a few months ago. But I had been puzzled earlier in the year by what appeared to be the virtually simultaneous introduction of virtually identical bills in Republican controlled legislatures around the country. Now I know why.
It struck me the other day: it’s very odd that “this law will hurt the industry” is presented as a persuasive enough argument against a law that it’s often the only one needed.
Great article Elaine. I can only shake my head when I consider how much influence money can buy. The trm “bought and sold” comes to mind.
Thank your, Elaine, for a great post!
ALEC also rewards legislators who get ALEC bills passed, by giving the legislators “scholarships” to attend various events in nice places.
As I understand it, ALEC does not even need to register as a lobbyist either (for what little regulation that would provide), by means of their charging the legislators a token fee of $50 for membership–it’s that fee that makes it a “membership organization” rather than a lobbying enterprise. Of course, it’s a very exclusive membership organization by requiring its low-fee members be currently in elected office while charging its corporate members much higher fees, and I doubt that regular folks could join even if they were willing to pay the corporate fees.
The ALEC Exposed website helpfully provides links to all the “model bills” that we plebs otherwise could not access, even though we plebs are helping to finance ALEC, due to its 501(c)(3) tax exempt status (according to page 1 of its corporate brochure:
http://www.alec.org/am/pdf/Corporate_Brochure.pdf
Could someone more versed in such things explain to me how it is that ALEC is a tax-exempt organization, when (according to Wikipedia):
“Section 501(c)(3) organizations are subject to limits or absolute prohibitions on engaging in political activities.”
How could ALEC’s reason for being and its every activity be regarded as anything BUT “engaging in political activities”?
Elaine,
Not only did you beat me to the punch on an ALEC article (I’ve been working on one too), but you scored a knockout blow. Well done in every respect. My hat is off. ALEC should be of deep concern to any American worried about the health of their democracy. It is an organization that represents a threat to our country and Constitution unheard of since the failed Business Plot of 1933.
P.olitical
I.nfection and
M.anipulation
P.athway
S.ervice
an Orgnization whose time to go has hopefully come…..
A lot to read … looking forward to a quite afternoon in front of the computer.
Contaminate it with what? Information and knowledge?
The word “hate” appears just once…
Left-wing hate groups which feed off the public blood supply and contaminate it:
http://discoverthenetworks.org/funders.asp
Never too much info….NPR has been covering this for a long time…..and guess who wants to totally defund NPR..