The American Legislative Exchange Council ( ALEC ) is a non-profit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives who develop and share state-level legislation models for distribution among state governments in America Union.
ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on models of customizable billings and introduced by members for debate in their own state legislatures. ALEC has produced model designs on issues such as reducing regulation and taxation of individuals and corporations, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening unions, and opposing gun control. Some of these laws dominate the legislative agenda in countries such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine. Approximately 200 models of bills become law every year. ALEC also serves as a network tool among certain state legislators, allowing them to examine the conservative policies adopted in other countries. Many ALEC legislators say that organizations change the rhetoric of campaigns and newborn policy ideas into the legislative language.
ALEC activities, although legal, received public scrutiny after being reported by liberal groups in 2011 and after news reports from outlets such as The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek described ALEC as an organization that influence the interests of the company. Generating public pressure has led some legislators and companies to withdraw from the organization.
Video American Legislative Exchange Council
Histori
1973 hingga 2010
ALEC was founded in 1973 in Chicago as a Conservative Caucus State Legislator project initiated by Mark Rhoads, Illinois state house staff, to counter the Environmental Protection Agency, wages, and price controls, and to respond to Barry Goldwater's defeat in the 1964 presidential election.
Conservative legislators felt the word "conservative" was not popular with the public at the time, however, so the organization was renamed as, the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 1975, with support from the American Conservative Union, ALEC was listed as a federal non-profit agency. Bill Moyers and Greenpeace linked the formation of ALEC with the influential Powell Memorandum, which led to the emergence of a new business activist movement in the 1970s.
ALEC was co-founded by conservative activist Paul Weyrich, who also founded The Heritage Foundation. Henry Hyde, who later became a US congressman, and Lou Barnett, who later became the national political director of the Political Action Committee Ronald Reagan, also helped found ALEC. Early members included a number of state and local politicians who went to state offices, including Bob Kasten, Tommy Thompson, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Engler of Michigan, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Indiana's Mitch Daniels, and John Boehner and John Kasich of Ohio. Some members of Congress were also involved in the organization during the early years, including Rep. Jack Kemp from New York, Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Sen. James L. Buckley of New York, Rep. Phil Crane of Illinois, and Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.
In the 1980s, ALEC opposed the withdrawal of US funds from South Africa, a movement to pressure the South African government to start negotiations with the aim of dismantling apartheid. In 1985, ALEC also published a memo against the "current homosexual movement", describing homosexuality as the result of conscious choice, and said that pedophilia is "one of the more dominant practices in the homosexual world". ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling discussed the document in 2013 and said that ALEC did not draft the bill for social issues, adding: "I am also sad that critics will not admit that organizations change over time."
Duane Parde served as executive director from December 1996 to January 2006. Lori Roman, who served in the same role from 2006 to 2008, has a haunted style that causes financial hardship and the departure of two-thirds of ALEC staff. According to Dolores Mertz, then the Iowa Iowa state representative and ALEC council chairman, ALEC became more partisan during the period, with Roman once telling Mertz "he does not like Democrats and he will not work with them." Ron Scheberle became executive director in 2010 after acting as a lobbyist for Verizon Communications (formerly GTE) and as a member of the ALEC board.
In 2011, the number of ALEC legislators has reached 2,000, including more than 25 percent of all state legislators across the country. Around 1,000 bills based on ALEC languages ​​are being introduced in the state legislature every year, with about 20% of the bill imposed.
2011 to present
Prior to 2011, ALEC practices and their relationship to specific pieces of law were little known outside the political circle. In July 2011, The Nation published a series of articles produced in collaboration with the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) which showcased some ALEC model bills and described the relationship with the Koch family, and CMD was launched. an "ALEC Exposed" website that documents over 800 ALEC model bills, legislators and companies that have helped organize it, and the states that enforce it.
The joint effort, and in particular his coverage of ALEC's encouragement of harsh voter ID laws, encouraged the Color of Change advocacy group to launch a public campaign to pressure companies to withdraw their ALEC membership.
The criticism between the media and the political opponents is that ALEC is quietly overthrowing democratic institutions to further the goals of its corporate donors. Oregon state representatives and ALEC member Gene Whisnant said in December 2011, "We got a lot of attention by saying we're trying to destroy the earth and everything in it." ALEC staff and members promote the organization as promoting public-private partnerships for the advancement of free market principles. ALEC's senior director of Chaz Cirame's membership and development said, "The hook about some conspiracy or some secret organization is a much better story than about bringing state legislators together to talk about best practices across the country."
In 2012, ALEC became the subject of the Occupy movement protest, complaints of the Internal Revenue Service by the Common Cause, and called for prosecutors investigations in several states.
The shooting of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012 led to increased public attention to the "Stand-Your-Land" weapons law endorsed by ALEC. Color of Change launched a new campaign in April to pressure ALEC members to step down. Over sixty companies and foundations, including Coca-Cola, Wendy, Kraft Foods, McDonald's, Amazon.com, General Electric, Apple, Procter & amp; Gamble, Walmart, Bill & amp; The Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance groups reject ALEC's support in the next few weeks or let their membership end. Thirty-four legislators also left ALEC.
ALEC responded by releasing a statement explaining the efforts of its critics as "a campaign launched by a coalition of extreme liberal activists committed to silencing anyone who disagrees with their agenda." Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro writes that liberals intimidate ALEC by "using Trayvon Martin's corpse" as part of a wider anti-capitalist push. Doug Clopp of Common Cause credits ALEC Affected for a successful campaign, saying that "for 40 years you can not get accountability as we see it now because ALEC, its members, its legislators, the bill is confidential."
Former Visa Inc. lobbyist, Newt Gingrich's assistant, and GOPAC executive director, Lisa B. Nelson, replaces Scheberle as CEO of ALEC in 2014.
By the end of 2014, a number of tech-oriented companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Ebay, and Yahoo! announced that they ended their relationship with ALEC. Many companies refer to environmental issues as a point of contention with the organization.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said that ALEC "really lies" about recent global climate change.
Yahoo !, Uber, and Lyft also announced their withdrawal later in the same week. Occidental Petroleum and Northrop Grumman also disconnected from ALEC.
In response to Northrop Grumman's departure, an ALEC spokesman said, "As with any other membership group, membership in the flow and flow of ALEC, and by 2014 we gain more private sector members than we lose." T-Mobile and BP sever ties with ALEC by 2015.
Maps American Legislative Exchange Council
Organization
In December 2013, ALEC has more than 85 members of Congress and 14 seated or former governors who are considered "alumni". The majority of members of the Republican-owned ALEC legislature. The membership statistics presented at the ALEC board meeting in 2013 show that 1,810 members represent 24% of all state legislative seats in the US, and that ALEC members represent 100% of legislative seats in Iowa and South Dakota. It also has about 300 companies, foundations, and other private sector members. ALEC leadership is a revolving position, with a new legislator being appointed for positions each year. In 2012, 28 of his 33 seats have been Republican.
ALEC has nine "task forces" that result in a model bill that can be customized and introduced by members to be debated in their own state legislatures. Private sector members effectively have veto power over the draft model prepared by the task force.
The ALEC Security and Election Task Force, promoted to abide by your land arms laws and voter identification requirements, was dissolved in April 2012. Subsequently, the National Center for Public Policy Research announced the creation of a voter ID task force to replace that halted by ALEC.
The bill drafted by the task force shall be approved by the board of directors of ALEC, drawn up exclusively from the legislator, before being designated as a model bill. ALEC also has a "Private Corporate Advisory Board", which meets every time the board of directors meets. Board members include representatives from leading companies such as ExxonMobil, Pfizer, AT & amp; T, SAP SE, State Agricultural Insurance, and Koch Industries. The ALEC statement affirms that the board advises the board of directors. Former ALEC chairman Noble Ellington said in 2011, "I really think of us as a council," although he added, "It's certainly not our goal to sit there and do everything the business wants to do."
Daily operations are run from ALEC offices in Arlington, Virginia, by executive directors and staff of about 30. ALEC policy stipulates that, "... full membership will be open to people dedicated to the preservation of individual freedom, basic values ​​and American institutions, , and a government of limited representation, which supports the objectives of ALEC, and who serve, or previously served, as a member of the state or territorial legislature, the United States Congress, or similar bodies outside the United States.
ALEC also has a "Scholarship Board" which advises staff and members. The board consists of Arthur Laffer, an economist assigned to Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board; Victor Schwartz, chair of Public Policy at Shook, Hardy & amp; Smoked pork; Richard Vedder, professor of emeritus economics at Ohio University and additional expert at the American Enterprise Institute; and Bob Williams, founder of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.
ALEC also has links with the State Policy Network (NES), a national association of conservative and libertarian thinkers. SPN is a member of ALEC, and ALEC is an associate member of the NES. SPN encourages its members to join ALEC, and many SPN members are also ALEC members. Some think tank institutions in the NES write model legislation, which was then introduced at a private ALEC meeting. ALEC is the "organization of SPN sisters" according to The Guardian .
ALEC is listed as a charity in 37 states.
In 2003, Donald Ray Kennard, a Louisiana country representative and ALEC national chairman, said, "We are a very, very conservative organization... We only support what we really believe." Craig Horn, North Carolina state representative and ALEC member, said about ALEC in 2013, "This is a lightning-protection organization because it has a clear conservative determination - no doubt about it."
Important policies and model bills
The ALEC website states that the aim is to promote "the basic principles of free market enterprise, limited government, and federalism". In 2003, Donald Ray Kennard, a Louisiana country representative and ALEC national chairman, said, "We are a very, very conservative organization... We only support what we really believe." Craig Horn, North Carolina state representative and ALEC member, said about ALEC in 2013, "This is a lightning-protection organization because it has a clear conservative determination - no doubt about it."
Although ALEC initially focused on social issues such as abortion, which it opposes, in recent years the group has focused more on business and regulatory affairs. According to John Nichols of The Nation, the agenda of ALEC "seems to be dictated at almost every turn by multinational corporations.This is to clear the way for lower taxes, fewer regulations, much protection against lawsuits, [and ] ALEC is very, very active in the opening of the region through privatization for companies to make more money, especially in places you normally would not expect such as general education. "
An Institution Brookings study of state legislation introduced in 2011-2012 found that the ALEC legislation model that became law was attributed most often to controversial social and economic issues. The study concludes that this phenomenon has hurt ALEC because, "Blemishing its hands with social issues undermines ALEC's ability to influence fiscal."
' Stand Your Ground '
Stand Your Ground's weapons law extends to 30 countries through ALEC support, after Florida passed its law in 2005. After the Florida law passed, ALEC adopted the bill with the same words. Immediately after the shooting of Trayvon Martin in 2012, ALEC support for Stand Your Ground law ultimately led to the departure of high profile corporate members such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Bank of America and General Motors.
Identify voters
Prior to 2012, laws based on the ALEC model design were introduced in many states to mandate or reinforce the requirement that voters produce state-issued photo identification. The bill was passed and signed into law in six states. The identification of voter identification introduced in 34 countries will make voting more difficult for students, the elderly, and the poor.
Immigration
"Supports Enforcement of Our Law and Safe Environmental Laws", an Arizona law commonly known as "SB 1070", was designed during the ALEC meeting in December 2009 and became an ALEC model bill. Stipulated in 2010, SB 1070 is described as the heaviest illegal immigration law in the US. Part of the SB 1070 is held by the Supreme Court to take precedence by federal law in 2012.
Money similar to SB 1070 was passed in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Utah, and has been introduced in 17 other states.
The Law on Terrorism of Animals and Ecology
One of the ALEC model bills is the "Terrorism and Ecological Act", which classifies the destruction of certain properties, acts of intimidation, and civil disobedience by environmental and animal rights activists as terrorism. This model bill has emerged throughout the United States in various forms since it was created in 2003. The federal "Federation of Veterinary Corporations" has significant similarities, and at virtually verbose points, for the ALEC model "The Terrorism Act and Ecology ". The Senate version of "The Law of Terrorism of Animal Companies" is sponsored by Senator James Inhofe, a longtime member of ALEC.
Many banknotes are also similar to ALEC's model of the "ALEC Animals and Animal Terrorism Act", which makes it against the law to film, record videos, or take photos on animal farms to "defame the facility or its owners". People who are known to commit offenses will be included in the "terrorist list".
Criminal and prison management
According to the magazine Government , "ALEC has become a major force behind the privatized state prison space and keeping the prison in full." ALEC has developed a draft model that advocates "violent crime" initiatives, including the law of "righteousness in punishment" and "three strikes". Critics argue that with funding and participation in ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force, private prisons directly influence the law for harsher and longer sentences. Corrections of Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corrections, two of the largest nonprofit prisons in the US (since 2004), have been contributors to ALEC. ALEC has also worked to pass state legislation to allow for the creation of private sector nonprofit prisons.
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 hire manpower and expand privatization of corrections." Economist Paul Krugman writes in 2012 that ALEC has "a special interest in privatization - that is, in changing the provision of public services, from school to prison, to nonprofit companies," and thus plays an important role in "complex-industry prisons". For example, Krugman writes that the American Collateral Coalition has publicly stated that ALEC is its "regulator of life".
ALEC dismissed a task force that supported severe punishment and now says it supports reduced jail prisons and lowered costs associated with the criminal justice system. Now promote taxpayer money investments in alternatives to detention, such as electronic monitoring.
Energy and environment
ALEC encouraged the deregulation of the electricity industry in the 1990s. The maneuver between two private sector members, former energy trader, Enron, and utility trade association, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), resulted in EEI withdrawing its ALEC membership. Enron's position on this issue was adopted by ALEC and later, by many state legislatures.
In 2011, ALEC adopted a model law relating to public law "the right to know" of what fluids are used in hydraulic fracturing (also known as "fracking") promoted as a victory over the consumer's right to know about the potential for drinking water contaminants , despite the fact that the bill contains "a gap that would allow energy companies to hold the names of certain liquid contents, for reasons including that they have been considered trade secrets".
ALEC has promoted a so-called model draft law in 2011 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, "railroad accidents" that will harm the economy, and has supported efforts by various countries to withdraw from regional climate change compacts. In 2013, their resolution stated "Alec is deeply concerned about the potential economic impact of greenhouse gas regulations on electricity prices and the dangers of EPA regulations may be on economic recovery". ALEC has also promoted a model bill that will require the federal government to approve the proposed Keystone XL project, which will extend the synthetic crude oil pipeline from oil sands in Alberta, Canada to Nebraska.
In 2013, ALEC is planning legislation that would undermine the country's clean energy regulation and punish homeowners who install their own solar panels and redistribute electricity back to the grid, described by ALEC as "freeriders" because they do not pay for recirculation infrastructure costs. the power they produce.
Also in 2013, ALEC adopted a bill that says that the role of human activities in causing climate change is uncertain, that man-made climate change can be "destructive, neutral or possibly profitable," and that the costs of regulating greenhouse gas emissions could lead to " big economic dislocation. " ALEC also invited climate change skeptics, such as Craig Idso, to speak at its national meeting. In 2015 the Common Cause and League of Conservation Voters show such behavior to accuse ALEC of rejecting climate change. ALEC responded by threatening legal action, denying that ALEC supported the refusal of climate change, and said it had accepted a debate on the issue and supported renewable energy and carbon tax policies to curb global warming.
Some companies have announced that their affiliation with ALEC will be allowed to disagree with the group's refusal of action against climate change. These include Ford Motor Company, British Petroleum, Microsoft, Google, and Royal Dutch Shell. A statement by Shell said "his attitude toward climate change is clearly inconsistent with us... We have long recognized the importance of climate challenges and the important role that energy has in determining the quality of life for people around the world." An ALEC spokesman responded "Climate change activists have united our opposition to the government that elects winners and losers as a denial of climate change."
In December 2016 Tesla Motors (not a member of ALEC) hosted an ALEC event in Washington, D.C., where ALEC promoted its "Energy Innovation Project", partly funded by the ClearPath Foundation. The project guide states toward innovation and entrepreneurship that surrounds US energy resources.
Telecommunications and information technology
AT & amp; T and Verizon drafted a law of the ALEC model that prohibits public broadband services and "sunsetting" the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The names of the 172-member task force, the agenda of the December 2010 meeting, and his treatise which included a resolution on traffic pumping published by Common Cause. In February 2014, Senate Bill 304 in Kansas was introduced, "prohibiting cities and districts from building public broadband networks and providing internet services to businesses and citizens". The bill contains the release of "underserved areas" for public wi-fi, but the exclusion criteria are not met anywhere in Kansas. The city of Chanute, Kansas, which has led broadband development since the 1980s, is financed through public utility companies, including free wi-fi on campus, hospitals and public spaces, and 4g cellular data network, feeling assaulted by bills. The bill failed.
Health care
ALEC defies an individual health insurance mandate enforced by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (commonly known as "ACA" or "Obamacare"). ALEC submitted a brief amicus at the Independent National Business Federation v. Sebelius , urged the Supreme Court to impose the mandate of an ACA individual. In 2011, ALEC published the "State Legislator's Guide to Defending ObamaCare", which has served as a roadmap for revocation efforts. ALEC has also developed various model designs designed to block the implementation of the law.
In August 2013, ALEC approved the "Freedom of Health Care Act" as a draft model that aims to remove health insurance from their licenses to conduct business on federal health care exchanges ACA if they receive subsidies under the system. Sean Riley, head of the ALEC Health and Human Services task force, said the purpose of the proposed legislation is to protect the business from the ACA employer's mandate. Slate journalist David Weigel calls the bill "a covert attack" on the ACA. Health insurance experts estimate that if the bill is widely adopted by Republican-controlled nations, it will greatly disrupt the exchange and threaten the ACA. Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive and CMD, said, "You can not build a healthcare system based on a free market unless you have a subsidy, if they are taken, everything will collapse."
In 1989, ALEC published the draft "Act on HIV Assault", which made it a crime for someone known to be infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) to have sex with an uninfected person, without revealing HIV infection. The bill is made to have sex without revealing a criminal offense, even when HIV is not transmitted. Alan Smith, who worked on the draft, said the proposed law is a response to concerns that people with AIDS intentionally infect others, "to ensure more people get it so more research money can be used to cure it".
Other issues
ALEC has worked to privatize public education, often promoting model bills that expand public-private partnerships in education.
It has provided a model of legislation that leads to enforcement of aggressive personal income and corporate income tax in Kansas by 2012. Governor Sam Brownback, who promotes and signs legislation, is advised by supply-side economist and ALEC council member Arthur Laffer, who says at that time the deductions will pay for itself and lead to increased growth. In the fall of 2014, tax cuts have led to a reduced budget surplus of $ 700 million, and although Kansas has experienced a 6.6% job growth from 2010 to 2013, that figure lags behind an 8.8% overall job growth for the same period.
It has also promoted a model bill that limits the obligation for a holding company to acquire a subsidiary responsible for asbestos-related injuries.
Outside the United States
In July 2012, The Guardian posted an article reporting that ALEC had taken action against a regular cigarette packaging law outside the United States. This is a government contact that plans to introduce a ban on cigarette brands, including the UK and Australia. ALEC's action in funding and advising these efforts against "plain packaging" of tobacco products is referred to as a partial motivation for academic study of the effectiveness of plain packaging, which found that "plain packaging can reduce the positive perception of smoking and hinder the use of tobacco."
Karla Jones, the task force director for ALEC, told participants at a meeting proposing legislation in Canada, the UK and Australia would ban branding of tobacco products. He said that the brand is the most valuable company asset. ALEC wrote to the Australian government stating that US lawmakers opposed the requirement for plain packaging. ALEC has also stated that generic cigarettes increase cigarette consumption, not reduce it.
Training and help
In addition to providing a forum for the preparation of easily modelable legislation models, ALEC also provides assistance and training to its legislators. ALEC's joint chair in Oregon, Gene Whisnant, described the organization in 2012 as a "great resource" for part-time legislators with limited staff resources. Mark Pocan, a Democratic congressman from Wisconsin and a former Wisconsin Council member, said in 2012 that ALEC advised members, "'Do not just introduce a single law, introduce 14.' That way people can not oppose any bill. "At an ALEC meeting, media experts gave messaging advice and taught legislators how to use Twitter to move ALEC bills through their rooms. Participants also offer to write open articles in local newspapers for lawmakers and place lawmakers in touch with other subject experts.
Confidentiality and transparency
Although the Magazine Government reported in 2003 that ALEC meetings have traditionally been open to the public, news organizations have reported since then, that many meetings are held in private. ALEC policy seminars are open to journalists and other nonmembers, but the agenda of public conferences, unlike those distributed to members, does not include the name of the presenter, the list of seats of the legislature and the private sector, or the corporate sponsor of the seminar. Task force meetings and bill-preparation sessions are held behind closed doors. Bloggers from ThinkProgress and AlterNet have been excluded from the conference for trying to take photos of the session and tweeting the names of participating ALEC members. In 2013, the columnist of the Washington Post Milbank Fund was rejected from ALEC's annual "policy summit" and was told by spokeswoman Bill Meierling that sub-committee meetings and taskforce meetings were closed. Meierling says that ALEC introduces transparency in stages, but "can not just kick open the door". Shortly after the Milbank incident, the Brookings Institution reported that ALEC activities during its closed-door meeting were "still a mystery", and that "ALEC can have a tremendous influence on lawmaking in American countries, or none at all - we do not know. "In 2014, Nebraska legislators and former member of ALEC Jeremy Nordquist described ALEC as a" faceless organization ", saying," It allows the interests of this corporation to simply silence and cover, and hide from actually stepping into public squares and put their ideas forward. "
ALEC does not disclose its membership list or the origin of its model bill. MPs generally propose a bill compiled by ALEC in their state without revealing ALEC authorship. For example, in 2012 The Star-Ledger analyzed more than 100 bills and regulations previously proposed by the administration of New Jersey governor Chris Christie and found similarity patterns with ALEC model bills that were "too strong to be unintentional ". Connections are based "not on the commonality of broad ideas, but at certain numbers, time frames, benchmarks and language". The legislative staff in the Christie government have "mined ALEC to seek advice on budgetary issues, Medicaid changes and privatization of government services... beginning in the early days of Christie's reign". William Schluter, vice chairman of the New Jersey Ethics Committee and former Republican state senator, said there was "a clear link between ALEC and the proposed New Jersey legislation". A spokesman for Christie denied any connection between the two.
One exception to this pattern occurred in November 2011, when former Florida State Representative Rachel Burgin introduced a law to ask the federal government to reduce its corporate tax rate. He mistakenly included the boiler "WHERE, it is the mission of the American Legislative Exchange Council to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual freedom..." When the inclusion of the ALEC mission statement was found, the bill was withdrawn and sent back without phrases. The Prospect Journalist Abby Rapoport writes that the incident "seems to confirm what many assumed is happening in state legislatures - and while Burgin's bill barely becomes a major part of legislation, ALEC's reach in key policy areas it seems difficult to exaggerate. "
Critics sometimes argue that by adopting ALEC model bills without disclosure, state officials leave the task of doing their own work to a business-centered lobby. In early 2012, Democratic lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin introduced "ALEC 2012 Accountability Actions", which would require the company to disclose ALEC funding. Arizona Home Representative Assistant Minority Leader Steve Farley, sponsoring Arizona's bill, argues that the company has the right to present the argument, but not secretly.
Prior to 2013, access to ALEC model billing was limited, and its website required a password to access it. On July 13, 2011, the Media and Democracy Center, in collaboration with The Nation, posted 850 bill models created over a 30-year period, and created a web project, ALEC Exposed , for to host this model bill. The leak has been credited with triggering critical coverage of ALEC in both left-wing and mainstream media outlets. ALEC then published its model bill on its website, although the Brookings Institution wrote in 2013 that there was a "reason to believe" the list was incomplete.
On October 1, 2012, Common Cause, a liberal political advocacy group, along with the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), filed a lawsuit under Wisconsin open record law which accused the five Republican lawmakers of not disclosing whether they had used e-private. mail accounts for correspondence with ALEC. In one instance, Wisconsin legislative representatives have requested ALEC in June 2012 that all correspondence be sent to his personal account. According to the CMD, lawmakers settled the lawsuit in late October 2012, allowing their personal e-mails to seek such contacts and paying $ 2,500 in court fees as part of the settlement.
In 2013, the chairman of ALEC North Carolina, Jason Saine described the organization as "a resource for experts you can tap that follows your philosophy from the government's point of view," and says, "These are not just some big secret organizations that has been described. "
The company's influence and suspicion of lobbying activities
Company influence
The level of influence that ALEC private sector members have towards members of the public sector is controversial. According to The New York Times , "a special interest in effectively turning ALEC members into a stealth lobbyist, giving them talking points, signaling how they should choose, and collaborating on bills that affect hundreds of issues such as school vouchers and tobacco taxes. " The Guardian has described ALEC as" a dating agent for Republican lawmakers and large corporations, uniting them to draft a right-wing legislative agenda in the form of a "bill model". The Free Lance-Star has reported that ALEC has "matured into one of the most effective Big Business lobby tools". Bloomberg Businessweek describes the organization as a "bill collector" that "offers great benefits to companies that seem to have nothing to do with ideology." Chris Taylor, a Wisconsin state lawmaker who attended the ALEC conference in 2013, described ALEC as an "well oiled machine" and said, "In my observations, right wing companies and think tanks drive the agenda. as legislators in the model of legislation being adopted. "
ALEC legislators generally deny being overly influenced by organizations or models of legislation, and argue that corporate input in the drafting process helps to drive business growth. "ALEC is unique in the sense that it puts legislators and companies together and they make policy collectively," said Scott Pruitt, then Oklahoma state representative and ALEC task force chair. Vance Wilkins, a former Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and a member of ALEC, said in 2002, "Just because business writing a bill does not make it worse, we get bills from all angles, and we still have to debate the matter." Whisnant , co-chair of ALEC in Oregon, admits in 2012 that companies sometimes write model bills to promote their own interests and add, "But that does not mean I will support them." Harvey Morgan, a former Virginia delegate and another ALEC member, said of the ALEC conference, "You know before you go that big-business outlook will prevail, and that's not always bad, I still want them to be a bit more objective."
Alan Rosenthal, a former political science professor and expert on state legislation and lobbying, said in 2012, "Legislators do not sit with pens and bills.I think legislators should have the right to turn wherever they want. to get an idea they like... I have confidence that they are not flimflam. "
Experts agree that, regardless of modesty, the ALEC model has been very effective. Bloomberg Politics reported in 2014 that ALEC "is not the same" in accessing conservative policy makers. Rosenthal said of ALEC, "You have interest groups that have access and are seated in other task forces, but here you have really perfected it... You not only get access and interact with legislators but you have it. that is a great improvement. "Edwin Bender, executive director of the National Nonpartisan Institute on Money in State Politics, has said," What makes ALEC different is its effectiveness not only bringing people together but selling pieces of laws written by industry and to industry and sell it as part of the main legislation. "
Allegations of lobbying
In April 2012, Common Cause filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service filing a complaint against ALEC's tax status as a nonprofit organization and alleges that lobbying accounted for more than 60% of its expenses. ALEC formally rejected the lobby, although Delores Mertz, who previously served as chairman of the ALEC board, said he was "concerned about the lobby, especially with [ALEC] 501 (c) 3" status. Reporting on allegations, Bloomberg Businessweek compares ALEC's work with lobbyists, noting, "part of ALEC's mission is to present industry-backed law as grass-roots work," and that being a nonprofit rather than a lobby group allow for reduced membership fees and freedom from disclosing the names of legislators who attend their educational seminars or the executives who give presentations to the legislators. William Schluter, vice chairman of the New Jersey Ethics Commission and former state senator, said of ALEC activities, "When you do it, it's no different from lobbying, it's lobbying... Any large type of organization that adds public policy or has initiatives that involve public policy should be disclosed - not just their names, but who supports them. "According to the government magazine, ALEC legislators often pay their travel expenses as" scholarships "and" win and eat and do golf " by private sector members. In July 2013 the Common Cause proposed an additional summary to the IRS complaining about these practices.
ALEC responded to the original Common Cause complaint by refusing to engage in lobbying, saying that liberal groups attacked ALEC because "they do not have as comparable a group as effectively as ALEC in enforcing policies into law." In 2015 the IRS investigation remains open.
Statutes in Colorado, South Carolina, and Indiana free ALEC, specifically by name, from having to register as lobbyists and reporting lobbying expenditures. In 2013 ALEC created a 501 (c) (4) organization called "The Jefferson Project" which, according to The Guardian , "will allow Alec to be more clear in its activities than its current charity status activities as 501 (c) (3) ".
Funding
In 2011, corporations, think tanks and trade group members accounted for almost 99% of the ALEC budget of $ 7 million. The legislator pays $ 100 in a two-year membership fee, or $ 50 per year, while non-legislators pay $ 7,000 to $ 25,000 to join, and more to participate in the task force. In 2010, NPR reported that tax records show that the company collectively pays as much as $ 6 million annually to ALEC. Total revenue of ALEC in 2011 was $ 9 million.
In 2010, ALEC received $ 100,000 each from AT & amp; T, Allergan, and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company will be referred to as a "presidential level sponsor" at its annual meeting. Eleven other members, including Pfizer (PFE) and the Institute of Law Reform, paid $ 50,000 each to be named as "chairman level" sponsors. In 2011, Altria, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and BP America are also sponsor sponsors of $ 50,000.
The Exxon Mobil Foundation donated $ 30,000 to ALEC in 2005 and 2006. Alan Jeffers, a spokesman for Exxon Mobil, said the company paid $ 39,000 in contributions in 2010 and sponsored the reception at its annual meeting in San Diego for $ 25,000. In August 2011, Exxon spent $ 45,000 to sponsor a workshop on natural gas. According to the Center for Public Integrity, ALEC received $ 150,000 from Charles and David Koch in 2011. Greenpeace claims that ALEC has received $ 525,858 from the Koch Foundation between 2005 and 2011.
Company members also pay $ 3,000 to $ 10,000 for seats in the task force.
According to a December 2013 article on The Guardian, ALEC faces funding shortages after "losing more than a third of its projected earnings" when some 400 state legislators abandoned membership, along with more than 60 corporate donors. The organization's 2013 tax refund shows a 13% reduction in total revenue from $ 8.4 million to $ 7.3 million.
See also
- State Government Council
- National Legislative Country Conference (NCSL)
- The Council of Government Affairs
- State Innovation Exchange (SiX) (formerly American Legislature and Campaign Issues), an organization that produces models of legislation from a progressive point of view
References
External links
- the official website of ALEC
- Organization Profile - National Center for Charity Statistics (Urban Institute)
- ALEC in Curlie (based on DMOZ)
- "American Legislative Exchange Council Internal Revenue Service filings". ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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