Tracking ALEC “model legislation” through real legislatures
https://dbapress.com/quick-and-dirty/tracking-alec-model-legislation-through-real-legislaturesWhat is ALEC?
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit organization (reporting about $6.5 million in annual revenue in recent years) which claims more than 2,000 (roughly one third) of the nation’s state-level lawmakers as members.
According to the group’s promotional material, ALEC’s mission is to “advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a nonpartisan public-private partnership of America’s state legislators, members of the private sector, the federal government, and general public.”
ALEC currently claims over 250 corporations and special interest groups as private sector members. While the organization refuses to make any complete list of these corporate members available to the public, some known members include: ExxonMobil, the American Bail Coalition, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Corrections Corporation of America, AT&T, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, PhRMA, TimeWarner Cable, Comcast, Verizon, Wal-Mart, the National Rifle Association, Koch Industries, the Heritage Foundation (co-founded by ALEC founder Paul Weyrich), GlaxoSmithKline, and Phillip Morris International—to name a few.
ALEC is comprised of nine “task forces:” 1.) Public Safety and Elections, 2.) Civil Justice, 3.) Education, 4.) Energy, Environment and Agriculture, 5.) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development, 6.) Telecommunications and Information Technology, 7.) Health and Human Services, 8.) Tax and Fiscal Policy, 9.) and International Relations.
ach task force is comprised of both public and private sector members—the public sector members being elected lawmakers, the private sector members being corporate representatives.
These task forces serve as the core of ALEC’s operations, generating “model legislation,” which is then passed on to member lawmakers for introduction in their home assemblies.
According to ALEC promotional material, each year member lawmakers introduce an average of 1,000 of these pieces of legislation nationwide, 17 percent of which are enacted. For 2009, ALEC claimed a total of 826 pieces of introduced legislation nationwide, 115 of which were passed into law—slightly below the average at 14 percent.
ALEC does not offer model legislation for public inspection.
How can I get copies of ALEC model legislation?
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of ALEC is the fact that, while their task forces and corporate members create laws that the general public often have to live with, they are a private entity and do not have to tell you anything or provide constituents of member lawmakers with copies of draft “model” legislation.
So, outside of contacting a lawmaker who has introduced a bill or resolution you suspect originated with ALEC and asking, or outside of calling ALEC and asking, there is a process utilizing public records law which you may use to determine who has been writing your laws.
1.) Find a lawmaker you know to be (or suspect to be) an ALEC member who has introduced a bill that you reasonably believe to be an ALEC bill– find your project.
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