ALEC: Bringing the vast rightwing corporate conspiracy to a legislature near you

More than thirty years ago, a small group of state legislators and conservative policy advocates met in Chicago to implement a vision: A nonpartisan membership association for state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty. Their vision and initiative resulted in the creation of a voluntary membership association for people who believed that government closest to the people was fundamentally more effective, more just, and a better guarantor of freedom than the distant, bloated federal government in Washington, D.C.<3>

At that meeting in September 1973, state legislators, including then Illinois State Representative Henry Hyde, activist Paul Weyrich, and Lou Barnett, a veteran of then Gov. Ronald Reagan's 1968 presidential campaign, together with a handful of others, launched the American Legislative Exchange Council. Among those who were involved with ALEC in its formative years were: Bob Kasten and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin; John Engler of Michigan; Terry Branstad of Iowa, and John Kasich of Ohio, all of whom moved on to become governors or Members of Congress. Congressional members who were active during this same period included Senators John Buckley of New York and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, as well as Congressmen Phil Crane of Illinois and Jack Kemp of New York.<3>

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ALEC has approximately three hundred private sector members including corporations, state and national think tanks, and trade associations. Some corporations and trade groups that have supported ALEC include: American Nuclear Energy Council, American Petroleum Institute, Coors Brewing Company, Texaco, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, VISA, Exxon Mobil, the National Rifle Association, Amway, Koch Industries, and others. Groups critical of ALEC claim that the organization is controlled by the entities that fund it, subsequently promoting donors' agendas and goals, along with attempting to advance legislation that favors their interests.<11><12> NPR reported that the Corrections Corporation of America was present at meetings when legislators were introduced to model immigration laws, used for example as the template for Arizona SB 1070, passed in 2010.<13> The report suggested that the group could be used to avoid state laws requiring legislators to disclose meetings with and gifts from politically unpopular corporations.<14> Shortly after the report was published, ALEC released a response statement addressing some of NPR's accusations.<15>

People for the American Way, the self-proclaimed left-wing advocacy group, refers to ALEC as "a right-wing public policy organization with strong ties to major corporations, trade associations and right-wing politicians" with an agenda that includes "challenging government restrictions on corporate pollution, limiting government regulations of commerce, privatizing public services, and representing the interests of the corporations that make up its supporters." <16>

ALEC makes a mark with its model legislation. The last time it counted (1995-96), 132 ALEC bills were enacted in various states, from charter school legislation to pro-business bills on environmental and regulatory topics. Many states used its version of welfare reform legislation.

ALEC is unabashedly pro-business. Its expert task forces, which write the model legislation, are composed of legislators and business representatives. About two-thirds of ALEC's $6 million budget comes from corporate contributions.

Scaife has given ALEC more than $2 million since 1975, keeping the group alive in its early years. Now his donations ($75,000 last year) are an insignificant part of its budget.

Even the politically aware can be forgiven for their ignorance about this conservative ghostbuster. ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council – does its best to appear innocuous and fly beneath the radar. In fact, it bills itself as “the nation’s largest bipartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators” that seeks to “advance…Jeffersonian principles.”

Of course, when ALEC says bipartisan, it is referring to the award it recently gave Senator Zell Miller. And by Jeffersonian principles, ALEC apparently means turning legislators into corporate whores. Less than 1% of ALEC’s funding comes from legislator members. The bulk comes from large corporate donors.

That corporate money buys access, and lots of it. ALEC’s “Private Enterprise Board” – a second Board of Directors for the organization – reads like a who’s who of America’s most powerful lobbies: pharmaceuticals, tobacco, the oil industry, and insurance companies are all well represented. There are over 300 corporate sponsors of ALEC, including Coors, Phillip Morris, Shell, Texaco, American Nuclear Energy Council, and many more. The “tort reform” crowd, medical interests, and anti-environmental crowd have gotten what they paid for, too.

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Additionally, each corporate member of ALEC has the opportunity to pony up a few thousand additional dollars (the actual number is an ALEC secret) for the right to sit on public policy task forces comprised of state legislators and as many corporate representatives as there are corporations willing to pay to play (that’s right, you can, literally, buy votes in ALEC). And where your typical Americans might see conflicts of interest, ALEC sees only opportunity, which might explain how industry representatives end up crafting model legislation that goes under ALEC’s banner, including proposals to allow for-profit private businesses to take over many critical public services including schools, prisons, public transportation and various social services.

But then why are the Republicans in at least 10 states also trying to prevent private sector unions from using dues for political purposes? Quoting “The Times,” “The American Legislative Exchange Council” is quietly spreading these proposals from state to state.” That group, ALEC is the acronym, it‘s funded by big business, of course. It‘s big pharma, big tobacco, big energy, big insurance, big banks, big automakers. That according to another website, ALEC Watch.

The ALEC Web site says it is down for maintenance. But a Google cache reveals that its early leadership included Kasich, among others. And a listing of board members includes executives from Wal-Mart, PhRMA and Koch Industries, which helped to bankroll the Tea Party.

MADDOW: Did you ever have that not so democratic feeling? I don‘t mean capital-D Democratic like yay, donkeys, yay blue? I mean small-D democratic.

I mean this is a democracy. I mean I have a right to vote, no one gets in the way of that right to vote. All our votes get counted and then the result of all that rights having and vote not blocking and fair counting is that I get a government—we all do, we participate in a group decision about who our elected officials are and then those officials get to do that thing we call governing in all its messy hysterical, fraught glory.

When you look at a group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, funded in part by the billionaire Koch brothers, providing model legislation to Republicans in dozens of states about how to change laws in those states to make it harder to vote, harder to register to vote, that can provoke a not so democratic feeling about the direction of conservative public policy in America in 2011.

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Posted by Fortune Editors
January 10, 2011 5:00 am

Opponents of President Obama's health care overhaul landed a chin shot last month when a federal judge found the law's requirement that citizens buy health insurance unconstitutional. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli argued that there was a conflict between a state law that made it illegal to force people to buy coverage and the new federal law.

But the Virginia law itself wasn't thought up in the Old Dominion. Rather, it was the product of a 2008 huddle in Washington. Conservative state legislators from across the country, along with industry lobbyists, hashed out the bill at the annual gathering of a little-known group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The organization, founded in 1973 and funded mostly by corporations and conservative foundations, exists to bring business-friendly state lawmakers together with lobbyists for corporations, including AT&T (T), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Wal-Mart (WMT), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). It drafts model bills related to its goals of free markets and limited government. Issues that ALEC has influenced include Arizona's anti-immigration law, tort reform in Mississippi, and the opposition to Net neutrality.

Despite the intimate involvement of lobbyists, ALEC officials insist the organization is not a lobbying group, since it doesn't follow lawmakers to try to advance their bills. Instead, ALEC is a charity, a status it justifies because of its educational mission. The designation allows the group to collect tax-deductible contributions, and it eases lawmaker travel to ALEC events. Says Edwin Bender of the National Institute on Money in State Politics: "Corporations can implement their agendas very effectively using ALEC."

In the 2009 legislative session, by ALEC's reckoning, state lawmakers introduced 826 bills the group conceived -- 115 of which made it into law. That's quite a record, and it's going to get stronger. One overlooked aspect of the Republican resurgence has been its revolution at the state level. The GOP picked up more than 700 seats in state legislatures and now controls 25 of those bodies outright, from 14 before November.

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Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Rob Perks, Natural Resources Defense Council, 202-289-2420; Brad DeVries, Defenders of Wildlife, 202-682-9400
If you are not a member of the press, please write to us at nrdcinfo@nrdc.org or see our contact page.

Report Exposes 'Corporate America's Trojan Horse In The States'

WASHINGTON (February 28, 2002) -- Major corporations are operating behind-the-scenes in state capitals across the country through a purported "good government" group that pushes an industry-friendly agenda, according to a report to be released by Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In addition to financing gifts and junkets for elected officials, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) acts as a conduit for special-interest legislation from corporations to key state legislators on issues that range from rolling back environmental and consumer protections to privatizing government services such as prisons and schools.

"It's time to shine the public spotlight on the American Legislative Exchange Council," Defenders of Wildlife President Rodger Schlickeisen said. "ALEC's sole mission is to advance special-interest legislation across the nation on behalf of its corporate sponsors and funders. Polluters, developers and their big business allies will use their extensive resources to finance a corporate takeover of state government if we continue to turn a blind eye to this deceptive organization's work."

The report -- entitled "Corporate America's Trojan Horse in the States: The Untold Story Behind the American Legislative Exchange Council" -- is available on the Internet at www.alecwatch.org. It is based on thousands of pages of primary financial documents and other source material, including tax returns filed by ALEC and its major underwriters.

"While the Congressional debate over campaign finance reform has focused the nation's attention on corporate influence over politics at the federal level, ALEC provides a chilling example of even more brazen manipulation involving state legislatures," said Gregory Wetstone, NRDC's director of advocacy. "ALEC is the ultimate 'Trojan Horse' for industry forces seeking to bend state laws to maximize corporate profits, often at the expense of citizens and the environment."

ALEC touts itself as a membership association of state legislators. But corporations and trade associations finance virtually all of ALEC's activities. One of ALEC's largest benefactors has been Enron Corp. The report details how the now-defunct energy giant sought to buy influence not just at the federal level but -- secretly through ALEC -- in the 50 states as well.

ALEC's underwriters represent a who's who of corporate America. In addition to Enron, they include Amoco, Chevron, Texaco, R.J. Reynolds, AT&T, the American Nuclear Energy Council, the Chlorine Chemistry Council, the American Petroleum Institute, and the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America.

These organizations have used ALEC to mount a wide-ranging assault against laws safeguarding public health and the environment. For example, ALEC boasts of enacting hundreds of pieces of "model" state legislation. But many of these bills undermine the public interest on subjects including health care, tobacco restrictions, employee benefits, utility regulation, tax policy, and education.

"ALEC allows these corporations to do what they couldn't attempt to do directly or openly without risking public criticism. They funnel cash through ALEC to curry favor with state lawmakers through junkets and other largesse in the hopes of enacting special-interest legislation -- all the while keeping safely outside the public eye," according to the report.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, non-profit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 500,000 members nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit environmental advocacy organization with more than 500,000 members and supporters, especially recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for endangered wildlife, its habitat and biodiversity. Defenders uses education, litigation, research and innovation to advance its mission over the opposition of special interests.

Texan Cruz’s proposal for interstate ‘health care compacts’ has gone national
By Patrick Brendel | 03.22.11 | 10:37 am

Last week, the House Select Committee on State Sovereignty fielded testimony on legislation seeking to challenge or replace ‘Obamacare.’ One particular set of bills proposes supplanting federal health care programs with an interstate “health care compact” — an idea that has gone national, but whose origin can be traced to former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz (now a Republican U.S. Senate candidate) writing for conservative think tank Texas Public Policy Foundation.

During the hearing, committee member state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) had an exchange with witness Susanna Dokupil, who identified herself as representing the national Health Care Compact Alliance (HCCA), a 501(c)4 nonprofit. After Martinez Fischer pressed Dokupil on if she was associated with TPPF, she admitted that she is a senior fellow in TPPF’s Center for Tenth Amendment Studies — the division from which sprang the health care compact proposal by Cruz and Center Director Mario Loyola (who also testified during the committee hearing). Dokupil, however, maintained that her testimony on HCCA’s behalf was “completely separate and independent” from her duties for TPPF.

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As The Texas Independent reported in December, TPPF joined forces with the American Legislative Exchange Council to spread the word around on several TPPF proposals to resist federal power, including health care compacts and calls for constitutional conventions. One specified goal for a constitutional convention would be to propose a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which is one of the legislative emergency items declared by prominent TPPF supporter Gov. Rick Perry.

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TPPF leads interstate consortium of think tanks against federal power
Texas lawmakers already proposing suggested legislation
By Patrick Brendel | 12.30.10 | 5:23 pm

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) has joined forces with conservative think tanks in other states to create the Agenda for State Action project, designed to help individual states thwart federal laws they see as intrusive — primarily federal health care reform. Already, Texas lawmakers have begun proposing legislation prescribed by project leaders, who include former Solicitor General Ted Cruz.

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In the December report for the American Legislative Exchange Council, TPPF proposes that state legislators call for a constitutional convention to pass amendments to require a balanced federal budget, require a congressional super-majority to raise taxes, enable a line-item veto for federal appropriations, make increases in the federal debt contingent upon state legislatures’ approval, allow two-thirds of state legislatures to repeal any federal law and change the amendment process so two-thirds of states can propose amendments directly.

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"Last year it was discovered that Rhode Island's public employees ranked 4th in average pay, while the private sector ranked 23rd," he said in his posting on a local news website.

We found those statistics interesting. When we e-mailed him asking for their source, he said he found them in a 2009 report -- "Rich States, Poor States," by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. That ALEC report says the information came from the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, a business-financed research group, but it doesn't indicate which RIPEC report it's referencing or when the data were collected.

We went looking for the RIPEC report that had those numbers. We couldn't find it.

Neither could RIPEC, which searched reports going back to the mid-1990s.

For Immediate Release: May 18, 2010

Contact: Tricia Cooley
202-965-3500, ext. 8369
media.replies@justice.org

Report Lifts Veil on ALEC’s Pro-Corporate, Anti-Consumer Mission

Front group ghostwrites the law for corporate America on behalf of oil, drug, asbestos, and insurance interests

Washington, DC—The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has secretly taken millions of dollars in corporate money to infiltrate state legislatures and push legislation that, amongst other anti-consumer measures, would give complete immunity to asbestos manufacturers and undermine recently-passed health care reform, according to a new report released today.

On its surface, ALEC’s membership is mostly comprised of thousands of state legislators. Each pays a nominal membership fee in order to attend ALEC retreats and receive model legislation. But ALEC’s corporate contributors pay a king’s ransom to gain access to legislators and distribute their corporate-crafted legislation. As a result, thousands of bills have been introduced across the country that would protect corporate interests at the expense of consumers’ rights.

“While many have read about the disturbing influence of corporations in national politics and government, corporations are also looking towards state legislatures for more immunity and less accountability,” said American Association for Justice President Anthony Tarricone. “ALEC is the ultimate smoke-filled back room: another opportunity for corporations to buy access and protect their profits at the expense of consumers.”

One example of ALEC’s influence in state legislatures is its work on behalf of Crown, Cork & Seal which purchased a small company that manufactured asbestos insulation. At the time of the transaction, the dangers of asbestos were well known, and Crown was in full knowledge of the future liability of asbestos claimants. Even though its own financial filings state that claims from asbestos victims will have no material adverse effects, Crown, Cork & Seal paid ALEC to persuade state legislatures to cap its liability, leaving thousands of injured workers without legal recourse. This legislation has already been enacted in several states, allowing Crown, Cork & Seal to escape accountability and increase profits at the expense of consumers.

ALEC has also worked on model legislation with Blue Cross Blue Shield to roll back the recently-passed health care bill, as well as with ExxonMobil to challenge the science behind global warming.

For a full copy of the report, “ALEC: Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America," click here.
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As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations. Visit http://www.justice.org/newsroom.

Today, Washington, D.C.-based ALEC serves as the ultimate smoke-filled backroom, where corporations gain access to legislators and get the laws they write enacted throughout the country. Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, a major force in ALEC’s rebirth as a corporate front, outlined the process, saying, “I always found new ideas and then I’d take them back to Wisconsin, disguise them a little bit, and declare that it’s mine.”

Koch’s other front groups have marshaled support for Walker. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a group financed with nearly $500,000 in Koch money and lead in part by a Koch executive, has pushed anti-public sector union legislation to Walker and the Wisconsin GOP.

Morefield's resolution is an attempt to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. It's copied verbatim from "model legislation" drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative organization that sponsors conventions in which legislators and corporate lobbyists huddle together and write business-friendly bills.

The group published a report on Feb. 8 called "EPA's Regulatory Train Wreck" that includes the resolution. Morefield put his name on it and filed it in the General Assembly two days later.

Morefield is simply following in the footsteps of his elders. House Speaker Bill Howell, former national chairman of ALEC, has carried legislation penned by the group.

But when Howell was asked about the origins of "model legislation" related to asbestos lawsuits last year, he just mumbled about his leadership role in ALEC and his longstanding concerns about tort reform. He certainly didn't blurt out that his bill was the brainchild of a corporate lawyer trying to get his client out of a legal pickle.

Some of the measures have spread after being tried out last year on a small scale.

Utah’s Legislature — often a pioneer in challenging federal laws — passed a bill in 2010 that authorized the state to use eminent domain protections to seize federal lands. It then appropriated $3 million for what state officials acknowledged would be an uphill legal battle to defend their stance.

This year, six more states — Arizona, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington — have taken up the argument, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a nonprofit group that supports limited government and free markets.

Clint Woods, the director of the group’s energy, environment and agriculture task force, said the wave of new bills had been fueled by the Department of Interior’s talk about designating “wild lands” that would be protected from development and creating new national monuments.

“The experiences of union members and working people with too many flawed trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement and China’s accession to the World Trade Organization do not justify optimism that this deal will generate the promised new jobs,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said in a statement. “We’ve seen U.S. multinational companies take advantage of the investment and other corporate protections in past trade deals to shift production offshore, while maintaining access to the U.S. consumer market and undermining the jobs, wages and bargaining power of American workers. And the results have been catastrophic, with chronic and unsustainable trade deficits that sap economic growth and domestic job creation.”

SJM 8006 was instigated by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative corporate-funded organization promoting “small” government that produces model legislation for state lawmakers. Among ALEC’s primary funders are the infamous Koch brothers, the Kansas billionaires who are funding right-wing activities ranging from the Tea Party to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s assault on Wisconsin public employees’ collective bargaining rights.

But since ALEC adopted model legislation for the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, the group has played a key role in trumpeting iterations of the bill in various states over the past year. ALEC’s Herrera has offered guidance to lawmakers in more than a dozen state legislatures on the issue. The group brags on its website that “as anti-freedom health policy — such as an individual mandate, an employer mandate, and the ‘public plan’ — surface at the state and national levels, ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act has become an essential tool in securing the rights of patients to make their own health care choices.”

ALEC’s task forces are better known for crafting legislation that coincides, rather than conflicts, with the interests of its private-sector members. Famous for hosting lavish conferences for state legislators who possess no staff of their own, the group pampers lawmakers while providing them the opportunity to collaborate on legislation often previously researched and introduced by the policy shops of its corporate members.

“Their conferences proceed in a very orchestrated manner with legislation that was effectively already designed before get there,” noted Rodger Schlinkeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife, an environmental group that has differed with ALEC on state legislative priorities in the past. “Representatives are having a good time, playing golf. There’s no heavy lifting on the legislative side so they don’t have to do much. The ALEC staff and industry reps hold their hand and out pops this model legislation with various corporate interests in mind.”

In one case, noted by Mother Jones, ALEC drafted model “truth in sentencing” legislation that restricted parole eligibility, effectively ensuring longer prison terms for inmates. A pivotal member of the task force that crafted the bill’s language? The Corrections Corporation of America, the leader in the private corrections management industry, which stood to benefit directly from longer prison sentences.

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If ALEC's conferences were interpreted as lobbying, the group could lose its status as a non-profit. Corporations wouldn't be able to reap tax benefits from giving donations to the organization or write off those donations as a business expense. And legislators would have a hard time justifying attending a conference of lobbyists.

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Is it lobbying when private corporations pay money to sit in a room with state lawmakers to draft legislation that they then introduce back home? Bowman, a former lobbyist, says, "No, because we're not advocating any positions. We don't tell members to take these bills. We just expose best practices. All we're really doing is developing policies that are in model bill form."

So, for example, last December Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce sat in a hotel conference room with representatives from the Corrections Corporation of America and several dozen others. The group voted on model legislation that was introduced into the Arizona legislature two months later, almost word for word.

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But first ALEC has to get legislators to the conferences. The organization encourages state lawmakers to bring their families. Corporations sponsor golf tournaments on the side and throw parties at night, according to interviews and records obtained by NPR.

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There is anti-EPA legislation metastasizing in 15 (and now 16) US states, aimed at ending the Obama administration’s backstop use of the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

Within months of the December EPA rulings on greenhouse gases, the bubbling up of all these state level initiatives would appear to be spontaneous eruptions of righteous local anger at supposed “job-killing” proposals – but in fact they have been centrally coordinated. All these state resolutions have almost identical language.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is literally writing the anti-EPA legislation for these states! The basic resolution opposing the EPA endangerment ruling being adopted in the 15 states was drafted by ALEC’s Natural Resources Task Force.

The powerful and very effective lobbying group receives one third of its support from 10 energy companies, including Exxon, Chevron, Amoco, Shell, and Texaco. Energy industry groups such as Koch Industries, American Petroleum Institute, and the American Electric Power Association pay dues of up to $50,000 a year to support industry-friendly legislation for the fossil energy industry.

Responding to the lawsuit, Nathan Coffey, the Public Affairs Coordinator of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), took to Twitter yesterday to mock Marlene Griffith. Coffey posted a link to the AP story about Marlene Griffith, sarcastically commenting that “Everyone wants free money!” View a screen shot of the comment below:




Btw, the bit.ly link in that tweet goes to this page

http://www.wvgazette.com/ap/ApTopStories/201004160510

with the URL giving the 4/16/2010 date and the page title "Widow sues Massey over W.Va. mine disaster."

But the story itself is gone.

Creating a Right-Wing Nation, State by State
by Joshua Holland
A couple of staffers for People for the American Way went undercover to a conference of the ultra-conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Here's what they discovered.
November 16, 2005 |


ALEC's record of achievement makes it one of the most successful parts of the conservative movement, but many progressives aren't aware of it. They should be; ALEC claims as members 34 state Speakers of The House, 25 Senate Presidents, 31 Senate Leaders and 33 House Leaders.

Given that ALEC claims to have successfully passed 200 bills into law in 2003, keeping tabs on the organization is a good way to get a handle on where the right will train its sights next.

Two staffers for People For the American Way (PFAW) went to ALEC's August meeting to get that scoop. Earlier this month I attended a conference of labor and community activists in Washington, D.C. to hear a summary of what PFAW's staffers picked up at the summit. This report draws heavily on their work, for which I'm grateful (disclosure: during the past year I've received modest support from PFAW for some of my own activism, and I'm an honorary Fellow with its Young People For program).

On The Horizon

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George W. Bush was the keynote speaker, discussing how successful his tax cuts have been (if you care to, you can read his speech here). Grover Norquist, Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich rounded out the right's star power. (According to one of PFAW's observers, Norquist told a room full of legislators that "those on the left aren't stupid, they're evil.")

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ALEC: The Libertarian Powerhouse that No One Covers
Posted Friday, December 03, 2010 11:43 AM | By David Weigel

Blogging's been a little light today because I've spent the morning at the American Legislative Exchange Council's D.C. meeting. I came, in part, because it seemed odd that no one was really covering this. Newt Gingrich gave a speech this week, which is not a rare occurrence in D.C., and that got covered. But no one else seemed to be attending the sessions where conservative state legislators were taking notes on the most effective way to roll back federal regulations and challenge the federal government. These legislators are part of the biggest sweep in generations, taking or affirming control of state government in most of the country.

How many legislators were here? I asked, and was at first told that around 900 people were in attendance, which would include a lot of private sector attendees, then told that number of legislators was not public information. But I talked to several legislators who informed me how many of their peers had shown up for three days of briefings on topics like "EPA's Regulatory Assault" and "A Tax in Sheep's Clothing: How Extended Producer Responsibility Mandates Can Hurt Consumers and Businesses." The election swept in 25 new Republican members of the Wisconsin state assembly; five of them were here.

"I've learned a few things," said Daniel Knodl, a second-term assemblyman from Wisconsin. "For example, I hadn't heard about this idea of forming interstate compacts to opt out before." He was referring to a fairly new spin on the compact idea, being pushed first by libertarian think-tankers in Texas, that would have states declaring a federal government intervention illegal, forming a compact with another state that was taking the same approach, and forcing a legal showdown with the government.

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Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law
by Laura Sullivan
October 28, 2010

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The 50 or so people in the room included officials of the Corrections Corporation of America, according to two sources who were there.

Pearce and the Corrections Corporation of America have been coming to these meetings for years. Both have seats on one of several of ALEC's boards.

And this bill was an important one for the company. According to Corrections Corporation of America reports reviewed by NPR, executives believe immigrant detention is their next big market. Last year, they wrote that they expect to bring in "a significant portion of our revenues" from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that detains illegal immigrants.

In the conference room, the group decided they would turn the immigration idea into a model bill. They discussed and debated language. Then, they voted on it.

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But while the study certainly damages BCBS’ credibility, BCBS is involved in another anti-health reform ploy that they do not bother to promote on the BCBS website. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), founded in 1973 by conservative activist Paul Weyrich, is a DC-based front group which helps state lawmakers craft corporate-friendly legislation. As the Atlantic has noted, ALEC developed template health care “states’ rights,” legislation to declare aspects of health reform unconstitutional. ALEC has promoted this “tenther” legislation using its network of mostly far right Republican state lawmakers. The bills, which have been adopted in some form in 24 states so far, aim to invalidate federal regulations of health insurance, the public option and the individual mandate using the Tenther Amendment.

According to the ALEC website, the resolution was developed by a three member task force of industry representatives. One of the of the members is Joan Gardner, who is executive director of state services with the BCBS Association’s Office of Policy and Representation. In an interview with ThinkProgress, Christie Herrera, the director of ALEC’s health task force, confirmed that Gardner played a pivotal role in crafting this anti-health reform states’ rights initiative. Herrera told us that Gardner’s unique position at the BCBS Association brought “great knowledge” to the issue, and that Gardner voted to press forward with the campaign.

The Senate vote generally broke along the same lines, with urban senators voting to retain Prop B and rural senators voting to nix it.

The key votes were cast by four senators who voted to repeal Prop B even though their constituents had backed it. They were Republican Sens. Scott Rupp of Wentzville, Rob Schaaf of St. Joseph and Bob Dixon of Springfield, and Democrat Victor Callahan of Independence.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 27, 2011) - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) signed into law today Special Session Senate Bill 1, legislation aimed at reforming the state’s civil justice system. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) commended newly-elected Gov. Walker and the new Wisconsin legislature for their leadership in responding quickly to their mandate to restore business confidence and for making tort reform one of their top priorities to achieve this goal.

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The bill comes at a critical time, when Gov. Walker called the legislature into special session for the express purpose of decreasing burdens on business and reigniting the state’s sluggish economy. This bill is a strong piece of reform legislation that will have a significant impact on Wisconsin’s legal climate and economic viability.

ALEC is deeply committed to the advancement of substantive civil justice reform in the states and supports this legislation, which includes numerous provisions that reflect the policy and model legislation of the ALEC Civil Justice Task Force.

Among other things, SB 1 will keep junk science from tampering with justice, will strengthen the standards for filing products liability cases against manufacturers, and will discourage inflated punitive damages awards where unwarranted.

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01/13/2011
Profits Before People: Senate Bill 1 / Assembly Bill 1 Are All Wrong

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The destructive consequences of this legislation include:

* Changes punitive damages criteria for those injured on the job. Victims of at work accidents will now have the burden of proving that the injury was “intended” by the employer in order to be awarded punitive damages. This new heightened standard effectively closes the courthouse door to most victims of egregious conduct resulting in serious injury or death. Had this proposed new standard been in place at the time that three ironworkers; Jeffrey Wischer, William DeGrave and Jerome Starr; fell to their deaths from a crane basket during the construction of Miller Park stadium in Milwaukee, their families would have been denied a punitive damage award.

* Changes to product liability law that encourage the export of jobs. The bill requires that victims harmed by faulty products seek compensation from the manufacturer first. Since it is near impossible to track down manufacturers and pursue legal remedies in countries such as China, this bill creates a perverse incentive to shift more manufacturing jobs out of Wisconsin.

* Eliminates retailer responsibility for harmful products sold in sealed packages. This means that if a child is injured by a faulty toy the family has limited rights and options.

* Limits the rights of nursing home residents’ families to protect their loved ones from negligent care. The bill changes legal standards for nursing homes making it significantly harder to hold institutions accountable. It would deny families access to reports that show a pattern of abuse or mistreatment.

-snip-

-snip-

It is a great honor and a great thrill to be here. ALEC has done many, many things that have been very important to move America towards more rational, more conservative, more affordable, and more effective government, and many of you who are alumni are now either in governorships or in the Congress and you might on occasion remind them of all the principles that they learned here at ALEC.

-snip-

Then you want to start reshaping things. And you want a replacement strategy, not a reform strategy. You can’t reform the Environmental Protection Agency. The Environmental Protection Agency has now spent 40 years recruiting people whose primary job is to destroy American business and destroy local government in favor of a centralized dictatorship of environmental extremism. Now you’re not going to fix those folks. You can’t go in and say, “Why don’t we talk with each other and have better communication.” You’ve got to fundamentally, from the ground up, design a new model of environmental protection and replace the current model, and say to them, “Glad you were around. Hope you have a good time writing your memoirs. You ain’t gonna be here.”

Everybody should remember, when I say be not afraid, everyone should remember the Judicial Reform Act of 1802. Jefferson and Madison, who knew a reasonable amount about the Constitution, passed a bill which abolished 18 out of 35 federal judges. Didn’t impeach them; just said your office no longer exists, your salary is no longer paid; you can no longer hold court. Several of the 18 tried to go to court to sue on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and the remaining 17 judges said are you nuts? If we agree to hear your case, they will abolish us next.

Now, I want you to know, I am not as bold as Thomas Jefferson. I would not try to eliminate ½ of all the current sitting federal judges. I would limit it to the Ninth Circuit as a demonstration…

-snip-

-snip-

# Its sweeping definition of “eco-terrorist organization” could wrap up countless above-ground activists. It defines “animal rights or ecological terrorist organization” to mean “two or more persons with the primary or incidental purpose of intimidating, coercing, causing fear with the intent to obstruct, or impeding any person from participating in an activity involving animals” or natural resources. That last clause is the kicker. The bill’s definition of a terrorist organization includes any activist group that impedes business operations.
# Civil disobedience is “terrorism.” The bill explicitly mentions “Entering or remaining on the premises of an animal or horticultural facility if the person or organization” has “received notice to depart but failed to do so.”
# Speaking out in support of “eco-terrorists” is terrorism. The bill targets those who: “Participate in or support animal or ecological terrorism, including raising, soliciting, collecting, or providing any person with material, financial support, or other resources such as lodging, training, safe houses, false documentation, or identification, communications, equipment, or transportation that will be used in whole or in part to encourage, plan, prepare, carry out, publicize, promote, or aid an act of animal or ecological terrorism, the concealment of, or an escape from an act of animal or ecological terrorism.”

That final bullet point is the most dangerous section of the entire bill. It outlaws any activity, including communications, that “will be used in whole or in part to encourage,” “publicize,” or “promote” an act of animal or ecological terrorism.

“Encourage.” “Publicize.” “Promote.” There is absolutely no doubt that this language is intended to target the work of groups like the Earth Liberation Front Press Office, North American ALF Press Office, Bite Back Magazine, Earth First Journal, and others who distribute the communiqués of underground groups and vocally defend illegal tactics.

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What then can state legislators do to stop the train wreck? The report outlines
some of the comprehensive and issue-specific legislative tools at your
disposal, including expressing strong opposition to EPA’s regulatory train
wreck via resolutions, enhanced regulatory review, bills to assert state sovereignty,
and tips for getting your state on the right side of the ongoing
legal and public relations struggles. As unemployment hovers around nine
percent, it is the duty of states to weigh in against the effects of these jobcrushing
regulations.

In particular, as the highest-priority near-term action item, we urge you
to give close consideration to the resolution highlighted in Chapter 5 calling
on Congress to stop the train wreck. The resolution has been introduced
in a number of states, and has, as of early February, passed out of
state houses in Indiana and Wyoming. Our allies in Congress need to hear
your support immediately; the Administration needs to understand your
determination.

-snip-

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is one place a state legislator can turn. According to the organization, it is "a bipartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who share a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty." In fact, a recent study found that 85 percent of its more than 200 members in "senior leadership positions" are Republicans. ALEC promotes policies such as "free market environmentalism" and the privatization of services like education, prisons and health care.

Wisconsin's "school choice" programs, among the first in the nation, were staked out early on by ALEC. The Milwaukee program has been making headlines since its inception -- most recently for the use of one voucher school's public monies to purchase luxury cars. The role of ALEC in the history of voucher legislation is not as well known, however.

School vouchers came of age during the gubernatorial reign of Tommy Thompson. ALEC and the right wing foundations that it partners with -- among them the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation and the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI) -- worked to transform the image of voucher programs from a desultory privatization scheme to a "progressive" policy that gives students from low-income families a chance to get a better education.

"The strongest link comes from ALEC itself, which held out Wisconsin Works and PAVE (People Against a Violent Environment) as models for the rest of the country," said Erin O'Neill of Public Trust Partnership. Public Trust is a nonprofit collaborative of public interest advocacy organizations that seeks to alert citizens to the influence of right-wing and corporate interests in state policymaking. "They have had model legislation on the issue for years."

-snip-

In order to promote greater educational freedom
for parents, and improvements in traditional
public schooling, the American Legislative
Exchange Council has developed six model bills to
help lawmakers fashion highly effective, constitutionally
sound school choice legislation in their
state.

The cornerstone of this effort is the simple recognition
that school vouchers, tuition tax credits,
charter schools, home schooling and virtual schooling
are all different incarnations of a critically
important concept: improving the quality of K-12
education in America by giving parents the freedom
to choose the best school for their child.

-snip-

Utahns voted 60-40 percent to nullify a sweeping voucher plan passed by the legislature earlier this year. The vote, said Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn, is another reminder of how unpopular voucher plans are.

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The so-called “Parents for Choice in Education Act” would have provided $500 to $3,000 in voucher aid for every student wanting to attend private school. It appeared on the ballot Nov. 6 as Referendum 1.

The bill was pushed through the legislature by pro-voucher forces mostly outside the state, led by the American Legislative Exchange Council. When opponents gathered enough signatures to put the measure on the ballot, a group called Parents for Choice in Education defended it.

Critics noted, however, that the group has precious few parents in it and was funded largely by money provided by Patrick M. Byrne, an internet millionaire who runs the sales Web site Overstock.com.

-snip

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Missouri State Sen. Jane Cunningham (R) has introduced a bill to minimize child labor laws. I could find all kinds of colorful words and descriptions to show just how crazed and outrageous is S.B. 222.

But let’s just use the official summary of the bill from the Missouri state Senate website and if you don’t believe me, click here and read it yourself.

* This act modifies the child labor laws.
* It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen.
* Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed.
* It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed.
* Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished.
* It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ.
* It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.

-snip-

Senator Cunningham was Chairwoman of the Education Task Force and served on the Board of Directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the largest voluntary organization of legislators and business leaders in the country.

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In North Dakota, lawmakers don't have to disclose such trips as long as they're not financed by taxpayers. Lawmakers often are eligible to claim their daily pay when they are on legislative business, too, and Stenehjem said he did claim his $158 per day on some of his trips.

-snip-

The Republican-controlled Legislature has defeated several proposals in recent years to require lawmakers to disclose trips financed by outside groups. One bill, sponsored by Sen. Richard Marcellais, D-Belcourt, would have required lawmakers to disclose the destination and purpose of any outside trip related to public business, as well as the money spent on them.

-snip-

In 2003, 16 GOP lawmakers skipped a day of the Legislature to attend a Las Vegas conference of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-supported organization of conservative state lawmakers.

-snip-

Stenehjem's foreign trips have mostly been arranged by the State Legislative Leaders Foundation, based in Centerville, Mass., a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation that puts on educational programs for legislative leaders. The programs are usually affiliated with universities.

-snip-

Few states have yet embraced the most drastic step— scrapping their traditional plans for a 401(k)-style program that would guarantee only a certain state contribution for employees, not a particular level of benefits when they retired. But it may only a matter of time until that change comes, says Barry Poulson, a retired University of Colorado economist who advises conservative think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council, which have been promoting the change.

"You're essentially at a point there where there's no way you can sustain that kind of plan," he said of states struggling with traditional defined benefit pensions. Most private employers have already made the switch because they "quite simply decided they couldn't afford them."

State Unfunded Liabilities in the Trillions: ALEC Provides the Solutions
Other Post Employee Benefit Plans: A Case for Shifting to the Defined Contribution Approach
(EMAILWIRE.COM, March 03, 2011 ) Washington DC -- State and local spending growth outpaced private sector growth by nearly 90 percent over the past decade and current budget deficits are estimated to exceed $100 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. However, state budget gaps are overshadowed in size and scope by unfunded liabilities in state pension and healthcare systems for public employees, which are trillions in the red.

These unsustainable cost drivers threaten the financial solvency of the states. State legislators can no longer ignore the unfunded liabilities in Other Post Employment Benefit Plans (OPEB). To help legislators navigate tough budget solutions, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is pleased to announce the release of Other Post Employee Benefit Plans: A Case for Shifting to the Defined Contribution Approach.

“Clearly, state legislators need a new approach in order to fulfill their promises to government workers, while maintaining financial solvency,” said ALEC Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force Chair Sen. Jim Buck (R-IN). “Most legislative fixes over the past few years for state budgets have merely postponed or obscured state budget problems, rather than solving them. By allowing public employees to contribute to their own welfare, they will have secure, portable assets for their retirement. ALEC is providing states the right solutions to address this crisis.”

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the U.S. Department of Labor, as of December, 2010, state and local government employees received benefits that were 69 percent higher than those in the private sector. State and local government employees earn $13.85 per hour in benefits compared to the private sector workers who earn an average of $8.20 per hour. According to the new ALEC report, there are also great disparities in the magnitude of unfunded liabilities per capita of OPEB plans in the states. The outlier is Alaska, with more than $13,000 in unfunded liabilities per capita. In contrast, seven states have unfunded liabilities per capita less than $100.

ALEC’s comprehensive report discusses comparisons between public and private sector benefits, the causes of unfunded liabilities, and how state legislators can successfully address them. An in-depth discussion of Idaho and California’s experiences with unfunded liabilities also provides state legislators with best practices for reform. For example, Idaho recently enacted reforms that significantly reduced the cost of OPEB plans to the state. Idaho’s contributions to the plan now exceed the required contributions, and the state is on track to eliminate unfunded liabilities in the plan over the actuarial time period.

“If other states followed Idaho’s example and enacted the reforms in their retiree health plans, they could eliminate the $1 trillion in unfunded liabilities in OPEB plans over the actuarial time period,” said Dr. Barry Poulson, co-author of Other Post Employee Benefit Plans: A Case for Shifting to the Defined Contribution Approach.
To download a free copy of Other Post Employee Benefit Plans: A Case for Shifting to the Defined Contribution Approach, please visit www.alec.org/opeb .

Voting: The Rising Degree of Difficulty
There are new efforts across the country, led mostly by conservative activists, aimed at making it more difficult for people to vote.
Sunday, March 13, 2011 | 12:05 p.m.

-snip-

“We seem to be drifting backward,” said Robert Brandon, president of the Fair Elections Legal Network. Photo ID provisions seem like a simple fix, said Brandon, but overlook that a disproportionate percentage of elderly, minority, student, and disabled voters lack photo IDs.

Many GOP-controlled legislatures are working from model legislation produced by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that has received funding from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, the progressive group Campus Progress recently disclosed. That link points to “a concerted national effort” that is less about fraud than “about stopping people from voting,” charged Brandon.

-snip-

The other problem with photo ID laws is that, on closer inspection, they turn out to be just the kind of big-government boondoggle that Republicans profess to hate. In order to withstand a constitutional challenge, such IDs would have to be distributed for free—something that could ramp up election administration costs by millions, according to the Brennan Center.

-snip-

The biggest danger for Republicans, however, might be political. Students, in particular, “are fired up” over recent ID and other proposals, said Heather Smith, president of Rock the Vote. She recently posted this message to the group’s 2.5 million members: “We cannot wait until November of 2012 to express our shock and frustration with a broken system.”

A review of the two dozen states now considering Arizona's immigration law shows many of those pushing similar legislation across the country are ALEC members.

In fact, five of those legislators were in the hotel conference room with the Corrections Corporation of America the day the model bill was written.

-snip-

Copycat Legislation

Since Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law in April, five state legislators have introduced eight bills similar to it. Like SB 1070, four of them were also named "Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act." Lawmakers in many more states NPR interviewed have said they would introduce or support a similar bill.

State ... Bill No. ... Date Introduced ... Status

-snip-

The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, which was the subject of a front-page New York Times article, has already been filed or prefiled in 38 states—Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Lawmakers in an additional three states—Montana, Texas, and Utah—have publicly announced their intentions to file the legislation.

STATUTORY MEASURES ENACTED: Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Louisiana
STATUTORY MEASURES VETOED BY GOVERNOR: Oklahoma, Florida
STATUTORY MEASURES PASSED BY ONE CHAMBER: Tennessee

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ENACTED: Arizona, Oklahoma
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS PASSED BY ONE CHAMBER: Alabama

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS STRUCK FROM BALLOT: Florida

ACTIVE CITIZEN INITIATIVES: Mississippi

Georgia Governor Signs Important Lawsuit Transparency Legislation: Georgia First in Nation to Tackle Implied Rights to Sue

WASHINGTON, June 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) today lauded the Georgia legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue as he signed S.B. 138 into law, requiring transparency in the legislative creation of new rights for private individuals to sue. ALEC is the nation's largest nonpartisan individual membership association of state legislators, and its model legislation, the Transparency in Lawsuits Protection Act, was the basis for the new Peach State law.

"Often goaded by plaintiffs' lawyers," explained ALEC Civil Justice Task Force Director Amy Kjose, "courts sometimes infer from vague legislative or regulatory language new rights to bring private lawsuits. These so-called 'implied causes of action' can bog down court dockets with frivolous litigation and otherwise work to undermine economic growth and job creation."

The Transparency in Lawsuits Protection Act asks legislators to answer directly the primary question judiciaries consider in the creation of an implied cause of action: Did the legislators intend to create a new right to sue?

"In order to avoid confusion and uncertainty," Kjose continued, "S.B. 138 requires the legislature to qualify legislative intent from the get-go. Consumers, businesses, and their lawyers deserve to know when and where they can statutorily sue or be sued. The enactment of S.B. 138 ends the costly game of trial and error within Georgia's legal system."

S.B. 138 passed with very strong majorities in both the Georgia Senate and the House of Representatives.

Victor Schwartz, a renowned tort law scholar and Private Sector Co-Chair of ALEC's Civil Justice Task Force, offered praise for all involved, saying that, "Bill sponsor Sen. Wiles, House advocate Rep. Ehrhart and Gov. Perdue are to be congratulated for making Georgia the first state to require its legislators, if they intend to create a new way to sue, to say so plainly and directly. Other states should follow suit in ending implied causes of action, or as I like to call them, hidden trial lawyer earmarks."

ALEC in the House: How Corporate Bias Affects Criminal Justice Legislation
January 31, 2002
Article by Brigette Sarabi

-snip-

Prominent among ALEC's corporate backers are several major stakeholders in prison privatization, including Corrections Corporation of America (CCA); Wackenhut Corrections; and Sodexho Marriott Services, a subsidiary of French multinational Sodexho Alliance, which until last year was a major stockholder in CCA, and now owns the former CCA prisons in the United Kingdom and Australia. CCA, the largest private prison corporation in the U.S., made the President’s List for contributions to ALEC’s 1999 States & Nation Policy Summit. Sodexho Marriott and Wackenhut also sponsored the conference.

Representatives from the corporate sector co-chair the task forces that develop ALEC's model legislation. CCA has long held a co-chair position on the Criminal Justice Task Force, as has the National Association of Bail Insurance Companies. These corporate interests have helped make tough criminal justice legislation a specialty of ALEC. In its 1995 Model Legislation Scorecard the organization claimed, "The busiest Task Force was Criminal Justice, which had 199 bills introduced." The report of the Criminal Justice Task Force states: “The Criminal Justice Task Force is dedicated to developing model policies that reduce both violent and property crimes in our cities and neighborhoods in an efficient, fiscally conservative manner. ALEC's Truth-in-Sentencing Act and Three-Strikes-You're-Out Act have been the most effective bills supported by the Task Force. At least one of these model bills has been enacted in half of the states in the country. The Task Force continues to explore cost-effective methods for states to manage their criminal justice systems.”

-snip-

For most of its 28-year history, ALEC has positioned itself as a conservative voice for states’ rights, and a dogged opponent of big (i.e. federal) government. With the new Bush administration in the White House, and over 83 ALEC members in Congress, as well as several key Cabinet officials, ALEC may be looking at pushing for more influence at the federal level. At it’s annual meeting in August, held in New York, several key federal players were active participants. These included U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Health & Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson (an ALEC alum), and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.

According to the Wall Street Journal, part of the focus of this year’s annual meeting was a new ALEC report that claims states have set themselves up for “potential disaster” over the last decade with new spending. Nowhere, however, was there any serious mention of incarceration as a primary driver for the increase in state budgets. Could it be that the corporate interests that influence much of our public and tax policy hate government spending—except when it comes to spending that benefits their bottom line? And let’s face it, prisons are big business. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that this year ALEC awarded it’s Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award to Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne, who heads the state that had the fastest growing incarceration rate in the country last year. Then again, maybe that’s just a coincidence. Maybe.

-snip-

Parry is one of the authors of the bill. It calls for the state — as well as cities, counties and school districts — to cut pension contributions by 3 percent across the board.

-snip-

Parry also wants to shift state workers from a traditional health insurance plan to a high-deductible plan paired with a $2,500 contribution to a health savings account for workers and their families.

"This is a unilateral pay cut," said AFSCME Council 5 Executive Director Eliot Seide.

-snip-

"I think this is precisely the plan laid out by Gov. Walker and the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is run by right-wing extremist billionaires and other cheap labor conservatives, to divide public workers against private workers and to drive down the wages and benefits of all workers," Seide said.

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Remember all those videos you've seen lately depicting various forms of animal cruelty and other heinous practices in some large agribusiness facilities? Here's one I told you about last year. In Florida, the newly ensconced legislature is about to make the production of such videos a felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Had this bill been in force a few years ago, it might well have been used to put all the people behind the famous documentary Food, Inc. in prison.

The bill, filed as SB 1246 by Florida state senator Jim Norman, (R-Tampa), is likely to pass both houses of the Republican led legislature and be signed by Gov. Rick Scott.

While no one condones breaking and entering or trespass, this bill is clearly not meant to address that. It may as well be titled "The Factory Farm Environmental Degradation and Animal Cruelty Protection Act." It's sole purpose is to prevent the embarrassment and public exposure of the uglier side of American agriculture. They want to make sure that the only story you see or hear is the bucolic rolling hills and Old-MacDonald image that large agribusiness and their lobbyists want you to see.

-snip-

As my friend Chris Bedford pointed out recently,



-snip-

Anti-factory Farm Activists Under Fire
State Legislatures Launch ALEC-backed Attack on Anti-factory Farm and Animal Rights Campaigners
by Bill Berkowitz
Dissident Voice
June 7, 2003

-snip-

Authored by Representative Ray Allen of Grande Prairie, HB 433 amends the state's penal code whose prohibited offenses already include vandalism, arson, breaking and entering, theft of an animal or natural resource, and trespassing. The Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is concerned that if passed and signed into law, HB 433 would make it a Class B misdemeanor to take photographs or to videotape in an animal or natural resource facility.

-snip-

Behind many of the bills being introduced across the country is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Mike Flynn, director of policy for the Arlington, Virginia-based organization, told ENS that he thought the language was appropriate and that it was a response to a growing problem that needs its own category of legislation. ALEC, a corporate sponsored and funded association of hundreds of state-based legislators, often provides legislators and their staff with model legislation.

-snip-

National Debt Relief Amendment in North Dakota Senate Committee
Feb. 8, 2011

Note: The following is testimony from North Dakota state Sen. Curtis Olafson regarding his resolution that, if adopted, would place that state on the list of those calling for a National Debt Relief Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Michigan lawmakers are also considering this proposal.

~~~~~

North Dakota Senate Judiciary Committee Testimony

District 10 State Senator Curtis Olafson

January 19th, 2011

I am here this morning to provide information on Senate Concurrent Resolution 4007. This resolution is part of a nationwide effort to invoke our rights as a state legislature under Article V of the US Constitution to make application to Congress to convene an Amendments Convention. The proposed amendment is contained in the text of the resolution and specifies that "An increase in the federal debt requires approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate states."

This idea was first proposed by Restoringfreedom.org and has been thoroughly researched by the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. It has also just recently been adopted as model legislation by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The nationwide effort is called the National Debt Relief Amendment and North Dakota is the first state in the US in which the resolution is being heard in committee. The resolution has prime sponsors in about 8 states so far with potential prime sponsors in about 6 other states seriously considering sponsorship.

-snip-

NEW ORLEANS, La. – An amendment that would mandate state approval of federal debt has achieved a major milestone towards ratification. On Thursday, North Dakota became the first state legislature to approve a convention for ratification of the National Debt Relief Amendment.
(break)
At least seven other states, including Louisiana, either have pending resolutions or legislative sponsors for the same proposed amendment. Rep. Kirk Talbot (R – River Ridge) and Rep. Nick Lorusso (R – New Orleans) have agreed to introduce the NDRA resolution into the Louisiana legislature, which reads:
“An increase in the federal debt requires approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate States.”
(break)
The American Legislative Exchange Council, the nation’s largest nonpartisan association of state legislators, has endorsed the NDRA and in January released model legislation. Noble Ellington (R – Winnsboro), a third Louisiana representative, is chair of ALEC, and he too has voiced his support for the National Debt Relief Amendment.
Additionally, the Goldwater Institute {Heritage 'franchise' in AZ}, a nonpartisan Arizona-based policy institute, has lead educational events and published research on how the amendments convention would proceed.
(break)
Many organizations that support restrained federal debt harbor fears of a runaway amendments convention – that it could radically change the U.S. Constitution. The John Birch Society and the Eagle Forum, for example, have worked against NDRA resolutions in Utah, Missouri, and Arizona. Matthew Spalding, a constitutional scholar with the Heritage Foundation, has also described the Article V process as dubious, unpredictable, and inclined to ongoing litigation.

Booth says restoringfreedom.org and the Goldwater Institute are working to debunk the “myths” surrounding the amendments convention. (Click below for one of restoringfreedom.org’s such videos.)

ALEC “State Withdrawal from Regional Climate Initiatives”:



HB 519 (as introduced):

Some Nonprofits Dedicated to Making it More Difficult for People to Register and Vote

March 16, 2011
rick cohen


March 13, 2011; Source: National Journal | Our nation needs people to vote. It's essential to our democratic process. Nonprofits have increasingly been active in helping get voters registered and educated, notably the Nonprofit Voter Engagement Network which has been profiled in the pages of Nonprofit Quarterly. But some organizations it seems have quite a different idea about this.

For example, a Texas-based Tea Party organization called "True the Vote" issued a warning about electoral fraud, having found that "precinct judges . . . help people vote." As Eliza Carney of the National Journal says, "One would hate to think of a poll worker helping someone vote." True the Vote and others are so exercised about this that they have planned a national summit in Houston on March 25 to train citizen volunteers to act as poll watchers during the 2012 elections.

-snip-

New Hampshire recently considered, and rejected, a law to restrict student voting. These initiatives seem to be exactly contrary to the intent of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). The American Legislative Exchange Council is pitching to Republican controlled legislatures a model bill on restricting voting (under the guise of attacking voter fraud). The model legislation was funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. For all the nonprofit conference discussions of the role of 501(c)(3)s in voter registration and education, nonprofit readers of the Nonprofit Quarterly should realize that there is a well-funded nonprofit movement pushing in exactly the opposite direction.—Rick Cohen

UPDATED: Ed Garner's Capital Gains Tax Cut Fails in Senate Committee
By Mark Carter
3/16/2011 1:52:27 PM

The bill to eliminate the state's capital gains tax fell one vote short of approval in a Senate committee on Wednesday.

HB1002, by Rep. Ed Garner, R-Maumelle, was approved in the Arkansas House but received only four voice votes on the eight-member Senate Revenue & Tax Committee, split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. It needed five to pass.

-snip-

The Department of Finance & Administration officially opposed the bill, reflecting the stance of Beebe, whose influence was evident in committee. DFA's Tim Leathers testified against it, citing a $68.5 million revenue impact and lack of guarantee that exempting capital gains earners from the tax would ever produce offsetting revenue.

-snip-

Also testifying for the bill were Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce director Randy Zook; Adrian Price, Business and Economics Division faculty chair at Little Rock's Philander Smith College, and Jonathan Williams, tax and fiscal policy director for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national association of state legislators.

Panel reviews bill prohibiting state from requiring health care
By Phil Drake on March 17, 2011

HELENA – A House panel on Thursday discussed a bill that would prohibit the state from requiring people to buy health insurance coverage despite an approaching federal mandate. But some members took note that no one from the public showed up to comment and wondered if any legislation were needed at all.

-snip-

“Doesn’t that show the problem does not exist?” asked Rep. Carolyn Squires, D-Missoula. She then asked if passing the bill could cause confusion for the people who already have insurance. Squires also noted the bill was based on legislation crafted by American Legislative Exchange Council, which describes itself as “a nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.”

MacLaren said the ALEC legislation has been proposed in 42 states.

The bill says the state cannot fine an employer or health care provider to participate in a health care system; an employer can pay directly for lawful health care services; and the sale of health insurance in a private health care system is not prohibited.

-snip-

AlterNet / By David Rosen
Notorious Pro-Corporate Group ALEC's Hidden Role in Stoking Class War in Wisconsin and the Rest of America

February 22, 2011 |


The current anti-union campaign being implemented in Wisconsin and other states has the fingerprints of the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC) all over it.

-snip-

Class war is not a crime in America but rather an aspect of the political process. Not unlike Nazi, fascist or Stalinist collaborators of a half-century ago, today's ruling class "collaborates" have something to gain in looting the wealth of the middle class.

The Koch brothers' predatory practices are accepted as normal business; the activities of Dick Armey's FreedomWorks is accepted as normal astroturf politics; the ideological diarrhea of Christian nationalist bloviators like Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Russ Limbaugh is accepted as news; and the porno politics of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann titillate conservative voters.

ALEC's activities, however, pose a deeper problem. Its practices have long remained hidden, playing a behind-the-scene role effectively using state-legislative stooges to implement the agenda of giant corporations and the super-rich. Its time to shine a bright light on this sinister organization.

What's the source of these anti-union measures? Meet ALEC, a right-wing group that writes state laws for Republicans
by Gaius Publius on 3/20/2011 11:45:00 PM

If it seems that all of this state-by-state union-stripping legislation is coordinated ... that's because it is coordinated. Also pre-written, gift-wrapped and hand-delivered.

Meet ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a national right-wing group that writes "model" legislation for its members. Who are its members? Republican state legislators and private organizations (think ExxonMobil).

Because ALEC is very secretive, only members get to know who its members are, what goes on at meetings, and what legislation is being authored and pushed. But sometimes the light shines through, and sometimes they own up.

About the union-busting laws, ALEC owned up. The New York Times, in the (next-to-last) paragraph of this story, fingers ALEC as the anti-union coordinating group (my emphasis throughout):

-snip-

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions
Published: January 3, 2011

-snip-

The A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s internal memo warned labor leaders, “With the enormous losses in state legislatures around the country, we will face not only more attacks on working families and their unions — we will face more serious attacks, particularly in the formerly blue or purple states that are now controlled by a Republican trifecta.”

-snip-

“They’re throwing the kitchen sink at us,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. “We’re seeing people use the budget crisis to make every attempt to roll back workers’ voices and any ability of workers to join collectively in any way whatsoever.”

A group composed of Republican state lawmakers and corporate executives, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is quietly spreading these proposals from state to state, sending e-mails about the latest efforts as well as suggested legislative language.

Michael Hough, director of the council’s commerce task force, said the aim of these measures was not political, but to reduce labor’s swollen power. “Government budgets have grown and grown because of the cost of employees’ pensions and salaries,” he said. “Now we have to deal with that.”

Mon Mar 21, 2011 at 10:20 PM EDT
Michigan emergency manager law could bring privatized jails
by Joan McCarter for Daily Kos

Taking a page from Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder has made privatizing the state's prison system that much easier.



-snip-

It might not result in significant public savings, but it does result in putting more public employees out of work, making it that much easier to break those unions. And in the case of Brewer, it also makes lucrative political sense. And not surprisingly, the same major lobbying organization behind the blueprint for Arizona, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is behind Snyder. What is ALEC?

-snip-

Bill would restrict bargaining rights of some public workers

SOME EXEMPTIONS: Alaska measure is similar to Wisconsin's.
By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press
Published: March 21st, 2011 10:46 PM
Last Modified: March 23rd, 2011 01:35 AM


JUNEAU-- Collective bargaining rights would be restricted for many Alaska public employees under a bill introduced Monday by a state lawmaker.

Rep. Carl Gatto, R-Palmer, said the bill is similar to one passed recently in Wisconsin and is aimed at keeping the state on sound financial footing. It keeps intact bargaining rights for wages but strips them for such things as health and retirement benefits. The measure exempts police, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, who Gatto says cannot strike.

He likened his bill to the Legislature's doing away with a defined benefits program for workers and replacing it with a defined contribution system. The state is still paying an unfunded liability from the old system, and without the change, "we would've been another $20 billion in the hole," he said. "To get ahead of things is my goal."

-snip-

Thursday, February 24, 2011
ALEC's Clinton Woods Helping Legislators Fight Obamacare, the EPA, and Other Conservative Nightmares


Like lots of other people, I looked into room 106 of the Capitol because it was lunch time and someone had provided free sandwiches, potato chips, fruit, and cookies to attract legislators and staffers to their talk. I had no idea who was talking. The bins were full. You can see that lots of folks made off with sandwiches. But only a few stayed. I got a sandwich for a nearby staffer, but there was nothing vegie, and I had brought my own, so I only took a banana for me.

It turned out to be the American Legislative Exchange Council - an organization I hadn't heard of. A young man named Clinton Woods was recruiting people for this organization which is a smaller competitor of two other organizations state legislators traditionally belong to:

-snip-

I noticed Rep. Carl Gatto there. He reported last year getting $2249.68 to attend a Heartland Institute conference in New York on International Climate Change. Heartland doesn't believe much in Climate Change and pushes market solutions in any case. Also present were Reps. Keller and Tammie Wilson and Sen. Dyson.

Their brochures made their position on the political spectrum fairly clear. This is not a neutral better government organization. It's an anti-government organization.

-snip-

A group of Republican strategists who had worked on Barry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign were worried. Goldwater had been soundly defeated, and the strategists feared that the base of the Republican Party -- primarily southern segregationists and the very wealthy -- was too narrow. So they set out to expand the base calling themselves the New Right. Goldwater was not part of the New Right.

One member of the New Right, Republican Strategist Paul Weyrich, founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973 -- a think tank to promote the ideas of the New Right. Weyrich also founded ALEC, The American Legislative Exchange Council in 1973 to coordinate the work of Religious Right state legislators. ALEC initially positioned itself as a counterweight to liberal foundations and think tanks, focusing on social issues like abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment, but became a magnet for corporate lobbyists.

-snip-

In 1979 Weyrich coined the term "Moral Majority." Their goal was to politicize members of fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches - a constituency that had been basically apolitical.

The Theocratic Agenda Is Heading for a Statehouse Near You
Well-coordinated "faith-based" initiatives and anti-evolution lobbying in state capitols from New Jersey to Colorado signal a stealth national strategy by Religious Right organizations.
By Rob Boston


March 10, 2007 |
Utah seems like a strange state to experiment with voucher subsidies for religious and other private schools.

Politically and culturally, the Beehive State is dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Seventy percent of the state's residents belong to the church. Most Mormons are content to send their children to public schools, where they are often released during the school day for religious instruction offsite. There aren't even many private schools in Utah.

Yet last month, the Utah legislature fast-tracked a sweeping voucher bill. It whipped through the House and Senate and was quickly signed by Gov. John Huntsman Jr. The measure contains no income cap and would offer vouchers ranging from $500 to $3,000 to virtually every student in the state. Regulation is light: Participating schools would have to enroll at least 40 students, provide results of standardized tests and submit to an outside audit once every four years.

What happened? Voucher opponents say it all boils down to one acronym: ALEC.

-snip-

Supporters of LePage’s budget cuts rally in Augusta
By Kevin Miller, BDN Staff
Posted March 23, 2011, at 9:51 p.m.

AUGUSTA, Maine — Dozens of Gov. Paul LePage’s supporters gathered in the State House on Wednesday to defend budget proposals that they said would create jobs and bring much-needed tax relief to Maine residents and businesses.

The crowd of about 75 people was much smaller than gatherings by hundreds of union members who have filled the hallways of the State House in recent weeks opposing LePage administration proposals that would affect state employee pensions and health benefits.

-snip-

Earlier Wednesday, a co-author of a report titled “Rich States, Poor States” by the American Legislative Exchange Council said LePage’s tax cut and pension reform proposals could help Maine improve its “economic outlook” ranking of 44th out of the 50 states.

“We think it is a great start,” said Jonathan Williams, director of the tax and fiscal policy task force for the council, a national organization of state legislators that promotes federalist and conservative public policy. “But it is certainly not going to move Maine into the Top 10 states overnight.”

Kansas House approves resolution calling EPA's air-quality rules harmful to national economy
By Associated Press
9:23 a.m. CDT, March 24, 2011

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas House has approved a resolution saying the Environmental Protection Agency's air-quality regulations are hurting the national economy.

-snip-

The Wichita Eagle reports that the resolution is a near copy of one offered to state legislatures by the American Legislative Exchange Council. The Washington-based organization says it has 2,000 state legislators as members. It is largely funded by oil, chemical and corporate interests, including foundations controlled by Wichita-based Koch Industries.

-snip-

-snip-

Bill Cronon -- or William Cronon, as I think of him -- is a Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin. A few days ago he wrote an oped in the Times critical of Gov. Walker and his push to abolish collective bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin. About a week before that, he wrote a blog post -- the first in a new blog called Scholar as Citizen -- examining just who's behind this big anti-union push. He focused on a group called ALEC (The American Legislative Exchange Council).

Now, so far, nothing particularly controversial about any of this. But then it took a dark turn. Or perhaps better to say, then the story got into gear with everything else we've seen out of the Walker administration over the last three months.

Less than two days after Cronon published the blog post, the Wisconsin Republican Party filed a state open records request to gain access to Cronon's personal emails to get a look at what communications or discussions or sources or anything else went into writing it.

Now, 'personal' is up for some reasonable debate here. This is his university email. And he's a Professor at the University of Wisconsin, the state university. So he's a state employee. Still, he's not an elected official or someone doing public business in the sense you'd ordinarily understand the term. Nor are they looking at anything tied to the administration of the University, which is legitimately a public matter. In the ordinary sense we tend to understand the word it's his personal email. And the range of requested documents leave no doubt about what they're after.

-snip-

This mess in Michigan and Wisconsin is just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening across the Country in a nationally coordinated effort to put in place dozens (if not hundreds) of bills and laws written by corporate interests (using ALEC) to close the door on not just labor, but completely takeover how America's laws at the State level, systematically state-by-state, are created and introduced.

In Michigan we had 39 bills, then 46 bills, now over 50+ bills in the system. Ask yourself: Where did all this come from?

More on the Mother Jones article and much more to the story with links to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
IN THE ORIGINAL POST...

Text Luckily, lazy technology makes this possible to an extent. On the ALEC website, they have a “Forgot Password” page, like most sites do. However, the process for resetting a password only requires an email address with no other information, and it gives immediate confirmation as to whether or not that email is registered in the system:

http://www.alec.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Login&Template=Security/NoPassword.cfm

Using this page, I was able to verify Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald’s membership in a few seconds using the email address on his state web page (Rep.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov).

Open up the shades and let the sunshine in, before they figure out this loophole and close it.

Behind the scenes is the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a Washington, D.C., think tank that provided Ketron with a template for his bill. ALEC, a national nonprofit organization for GOP state legislators, has Tennessee lawmakers as members. CCA is a corporate member and attended a meeting this year where the think tank adopted the Arizona law as model immigration legislation.
Private prison critics fear that CCA will use its influence to pass the Arizona law in Tennessee, while immigrant advocates point to the devastating effect the law could have on the state's economy. CCA officials deny any such legislative agenda.

The starting point for Ketron was a draft bill provided by ALEC, which has quietly become a trusted resource for conservative lawmakers, including a contingent from Tennessee. Earlier this year, six members from the state House of Representatives attended ALEC's annual conference in San Diego. Taxpayers paid for the trip at a cost of $15,000.
State Rep. Ryan Haynes, R-Knoxville, who attended the August trip, said lawmakers used the conference to get ideas for new legislation.
"You literally look at legislation that other states have passed or are proposing," Haynes said. "You sit around a table and discuss it, and then you vote on the legislation you think should be model legislation" for ALEC.
But ALEC comprises more than just legislators. Corporations also sponsor the organization and attend its conferences. Among those is CCA, though the prison company stated on its website that it does not vote on proposed model legislation.
CCA has vehemently denied that it played a role in pushing the Arizona law.
"We have given no support of any kind or opposition," CCA spokesman Steve Owen said. "We've had zero involvement with any immigration law in any part of the country, including Arizona."
However, CCA was at least in the room as ALEC adopted the Arizona law as the model legislation that is the premise for Ketron's bill. An ALEC representative said CCA attended the meetings where the model legislation was drafted.
"They can pay as a nonmember and come to a meeting and sit in on a task force meeting," said ALEC spokeswoman Raegan Weber. "To my knowledge, that is what CCA did. They had nothing to do with the construction of the bill."

State Legislators' Guide to Repealing ObamaCare
1/27/2011 4:25 PM

The American Legislative Exchange Council has just published a “State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare.” However, the 15-point summary prepared by ALEC staff and posted below is a Mackinac Center/MichCapCon.com online exclusive, because to our knowledge this bullet-point version not been published except in hard copy:

Executive Summary: ALEC’s State Legislators Guide to Repealing ObamaCare

1. Introduce ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, the primary legislative vehicle for state pushback of the individual mandate and Canadian-style, single-payer health care.

-snip-

COLUMBUS, Ohio—The most ambitious attempt by a state this year to restrict union rights is being scaled back to reflect some Republicans' concerns that it is vulnerable to legal challenges and would spark a backlash.

The leader of the effort to downsize Ohio Senate Bill 5 is Sen. Bill Seitz, a conservative who was behind the state law banning same-sex marriages and rules limiting damages in civil cases. Mr. Seitz and five other Republican state senators voted against the bill and are pressing for revisions in the state House, which is considering the bill now.

Newly elected Ohio Gov. John Kasich has pushed for the bill, saying local governments need flexibility to rein in labor costs across the state, which faces an $8 billion shortfall.

The current Ohio bill goes further in scaling back public-employee union rights than the controversial measure recently passed in Wisconsin, which was opposed by five Republican lawmakers there.

Some Republicans say the Ohio bill risks a voter backlash, drawing parallels with the Republican Revolution of 1994 that gave Republicans control of the U.S. House. Two years later, the GOP gave up some gains to Democrats, with some Republicans blaming overly aggressive moves by then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Mr. Seitz believes the bill could be tossed out by voters unless some changes are made. "I am cast in an unlikely role" as the improbable labor ally, he said. The lawmaker was named "legislator of the year" in 2008 by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of more than 2,000 lawmakers nationwide who support free markets and limited government.

Whether the issue is the environment, education or telecommunications, ALEC's modus operandi is the same. ALEC brings state lawmakers and "their private sector counterparts to the table as equals."<24> Corporate lawyers then assist in drafting "model" legislation that ALEC works to get passed in state legislatures. Mother Jones magazine characterized ALEC's work as "ghostwriting …business-friendly bills."<25>

ALEC has accepted contributions from many of the top telecom industry players: AT&T, BellSouth, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, SBC Communications (now merged with AT&T), Sprint, Verizon Communications and more.<26>

In return, ALEC pushes telecom legislation that bars or makes it difficult for local governments to offer broadband Internet services to their citizens, even in areas where the telecom giants have determined it's not economically worthwhile to offer such service, such as rural and low-income areas (view ALEC's "model bill" online). ALEC has backed such bills in a number of states, including Louisiana,<27> Nebraska,<28> and Wisconsin.<29>

State Legislators Oppose FCC's Plans to Re-label and Regulate Internet

August 12, 2010


WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) voices its opposition to plans by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to change the status of broadband Internet Service from a lightly-regulated “information service” to a more heavily regulated “telecommunications service.”

At its meeting late last week, ALEC’s Telecommunications & Information Technology Task Force approved its ALEC Broadband Regulation Resolution. The Resolution declares ALEC’s opposition to the FCC’s controversial plan to subject broadband Internet service to a handful of older monopoly-era telephone regulations.

Today the Resolution was delivered to the FCC along with a letter by Connecticut State Representative Bill Hamzy, who serves as Public Sector Chair of ALEC’s Telecom & IT Task Force. In the letter, the state legislator insists the agency should back off from its controversial plan to subject broadband Internet to heavier regulatory burdens.

“ALEC supports the continuation of federal policies that have kept the Internet free from government regulation. Marketplace freedom has encouraged the explosive growth of the Internet and e-commerce in recent years. It would be a grave mistake for the FCC to suddenly reverse course and saddle the Internet with burdensome new regulation. ALEC remains concerned that attempts by federal regulators to impose new restrictions on broadband Internet service will hurt technological innovation, deter private infrastructure investment, and threaten job growth in the states,” said Representative Hamzy.

As declared in the Resolution, “ALEC urges that the FCC, Congress and state regulatory and legislative bodies refocus their efforts on specific and limited initiatives targeted at ensuring that broadband service is made universally available and affordable to consumers, rejecting overly prescriptive regulations that would harm innovation, investment, and job growth.”

In January, over 90 other state legislators submitted a letter to the FCC opposing its plans to impose net neutrality regulation. In 2007, ALEC adopted a Resolution on Net Neutrality, opposing federal and state regulation of network management practices.

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CCA's opponents, such as human rights and pro-union groups, say the firm is run by amoral penny-pinchers who are in a business best left to the state because of the perverse incentives prison companies have to lobby the government to adopt policies that will increase America's already high rate of detention. When every prisoner is a daily $100 bill, say these opponents, you'll do everything you can to get as many of them as you can.

-snip-

Its lobbying arm spends on average $1 million to $2 million annually — a minuscule amount, CCA says, compared with the lobbying efforts of comparably sized companies and other organizations, such as public employee unions. In fact, the amount is slightly above average for corporations of its size, as judged by publicly available lobbying records maintained by the website OpenSecrets. CCA's opponents, however, say they are more concerned about the effect of the lobbying than the number of dollars spent. They claim the lobbying has resulted in harsher laws, and thus more demand for CCA bed space.

In 2010, National Public Radio reported that the company had lobbied successfully for the passage of Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which permits police to detain suspected illegal immigrants and bring them to a federal facility. According to the report, the controversial legislation was proposed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a group that brings together legislators and industry members like CCA. When Arizona's Senate passed the law, it created a potentially enormous new reservoir of civil detainees for CCA-operated ICE facilities.

-snip-

I didn’t know about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until about 8 weeks ago. Since that time it has basically consumed my life. The fact that our State legislators are sitting at the table with companies such as Koch, WalMart and AT&T drafting, deliberating and approving “model legislation” for our states and our country - makes me sick. The fact that our legislators think this is okay, is revolting to me.

The fact that all the companies that belong to ALEC have the money to lobby our US government and in addition, have the ability to affect the legislation at the State level through ALEC state legislative members, makes me sick. The fact that our legislators at the state and federal government condone this, is revolting to me.

Based on my research I have come to the opinion that ALEC is subverting American democracy and the democratic (small d) process, at all levels of the government, in the name of free markets and federalism (which in this case is a truly horrible thing).

Over the course of the past two months I have spent my nights and weekends trying to find out as much as I could about ALEC. I wanted to know who their members were. I wanted to look at the legislation they were proposing. I wanted to know exactly which of their “model legislation” was passed as law. I wanted to know what their “real” philosophy was. I wanted to know what their “true” purpose was. So I started doing research. Doing research on ALEC is difficult as they “scrub of the web” quite often, now-a-days.

-snip-

It focused on the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, which drafts model laws that are then introduced by Republicans in state legislatures as apparently happened in Wisconsin with the new law that seeks to strip the collective bargaining rights of state employee unions. ALEC, which has been around for more than three decades now, proudly claims responsibility for more than 1,000 bills a year and in every state of the union.

Cronon held ALEC significantly responsible for what he termed “this explosion of radical conservative legislation”—an argument he made a few days later as well on the op-ed pages of The New York Times.

Cronon was right about ALEC. His naiveté arises in his argument that he never belonged to any political party and he thought letting people know of ALEC’s role in the drafting of the kinds of laws now sweeping conservative-dominated state legislatures across America was a purely educational endeavor that wouldn’t draw the ire of those seeking to dominate politics through this avenue.