The Tennessean: Model bills written outside the state (including ALEC bills) shape the state

[highplainsdem]

I'm so glad to see this getting more attention in local papers like this Nashville paper:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110515/NEWS/305150011/Outside-groups-write-some-TN-s-most-controversial-bills

Several of the most controversial bills debated in the legislature this year, as well as some that have slipped under the radar without much attention, were written and promoted by groups outside Tennessee, a trend some political observers say reflects an attempt to push the nation in a conservative direction using state lawmakers.

-snip-

A frequent source of legislation is ALEC, a group for conservative lawmakers based in Washington, D.C. The organization has come under fire in recent months for providing the template for an immigration bill that could benefit Corrections Corporation of America, a corporate member of the organization.

-snip-

But ALEC denies that it is trying to influence state lawmakers.

The group does not lobby, and it has a staff of only 27 people, said Raegan Weber, a spokeswoman. All of its initiatives are approved by its board of state lawmakers, and all of its approximately 840 model bills begin as measures passed by state legislatures or suggested by lawmakers.

-snip-

That's a disingenuous answer at best from Weber. ALEC's model legislation is co-written by private sector "task forces" that can veto ANY model bill that doesn't meet their approval, keeping it from getting final approval by a board of state lawmakers, who are basically just rubber-stamping legislation the corporations have already okayed.

ALEC has had people registered as its lobbyists testify before at least one state legislature.

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x775905

And ALEC's corporate members fund lavish conference for legislator members and pay for "scholarships" that reimburse those legislators for attending, which in my opinion does constitute lobbying, even if they somehow maintain the fiction that ALEC is an educational charity.


As the article explains, ALEC isn't the only group behind this blitz of right-wing legislation written outside the states where it's introduced. The anti-Shariah bill in Tennessee came from the Eagle Forum, and the Republican state legislators who introduced it admitted later that they hadn't even read the bill before they filed it.

Sen. Bill Ketron, one of those legislators, blamed their failure to read the legislation on a lack of time, saying they're just "citizen-legislators" and they'd have no time to read all the bills that were introduced (even their own?) even if Tennessee had a full-time legislature.

This of course is a fact that ALEC takes advantage of, and as I explained in reply 231 in the long compilation topic on the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a recent opinion piece co-written by an ALEC director suggested that part-time legislatures are somehow better for states than full-time legislatures.

[nebenaube]

1. evil scam among other things..

Wisconsin taxes paid for ALEC memberships. ALEC give scholarships for legislators to attend. Legislators file bills they have not even read. I suppose the more bills passed the more scholarships. So basically, they are being bribed and somebody else is doing their job. Nice gig if you can get it.

[highplainsdem]

10. Yes, taxes are paying for ALEC memberships, all too often. It's an insane situation.

[xchrom]

2. i think they learned this from the anti-choice movement, the subversives on school boards, etc.

it's become more formalized now.

[Tesha]

3. Quite a few of the bills that have made it through New Hampshire's Legislature this season...

...have been ALEC-written bills.

It's a shame the Democrats never have this sort of
control and unanimity when they're in control.

Tesha

[Mopar151]

5. It's because Democats have some sort of conscience

While the New Wave Republicans (birthers, 'baggers, Birchers...) push amoral idiots like DJ Bettencourt (NH House majority leader) and US Rep. Guinta to their forefront.

[Tesha]

6. Oh bullshit!

Waging a coordinated effort to enact your legislative
program has no moral value in and of itself; it's merely
what *COMPETENT* political parties do when they gain power.
They don't dilly-dally trying to accommodate the opposition,
they *BRING FORWARD BILLS THAT SUPPORT THEIR AGENDA*
and see that those bills *GET VOTES* so they can be passed
into law. And when they have veto-proof supermajorities
or they hold the executive branch as well as the legislative,
that's what happens: they get their programs passed into law.

The various legislative programs may or may not be moral,
but taking actions like these to enact these programs is
merely what political parties *ARE SUPPOSED TO DO*.

Tesha

[Mopar151]

7. Call you on the BS!

The fact that the programs are amoral, and are introduced by legislators WHO HAVE NOT EVEN READ THEM has everything to do with "what political parties *ARE SUPPOSED TO DO*.

[Tesha]

11. Did you notice that your reply has nothing to do with the point that I raised?

One of the most serious problems facing the Democratic
Party is that they seem to be very ineffective at politics
*AS IT IS PLAYED IN THE REAL WORLD*. They seem
to have this idealized image of how it should work, and
that image is woefully inconsistent with how it really works.

So they constantly lose when they ought to easily win.

Tesha

[iwishiwas]

4. The same thing is happening/has happened in Wisconsin this year.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. It's been happening all over..........

The question becomes, what do we do about it? The system isn't working now any better that it ever has.

[UTUSN]

9. The stealth issue is that "STATES RIGHTS" is dead & needs to be highlighted as such

The AZ crap laws have been pushed and written from outside AZ (the KS a-hole). Same going on with anti-Choice legislation and all the other wingnut social crap non-issues. "States' rights" was previously the refuge of scoundrels, so now they are twisting it but using outside resources, both for content and for cash backing.