ALEC: Ghostwriting Law For Corporate America for Decades

Who or what is ALEC? The American Legislative Exchange Council?

Well, ALEC, founded in 1973, is a secret private association that  sets up Republican lawmakers with pro-business corporate-written ghost-written bills and sends them off to  legislatures all across the country to benefit the corporate structure, often at the expense of the consumer, and America. In 2009, thanks to ALEC,  826 bills were introduced in the states, 115 were enacted into law. ALEC's self described mission is "unite the public and private sector in a dynamic partnership to support policy development".

On July 13, 2011, the Center for Media and Democracy unveiled this trove of over 800 "model" bills and resolutions secretly voted on by corporations and politicians through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). These bills reveal the corporate collaboration reshaping our democracy, state by state.

Under ALEC’s published by-laws, legislators who are ALEC “state chairmen” have a “duty” to get the model bills introduced in their state legislatures. However, when ALEC legislation is introduced in state houses, it is under the name of the sponsoring legislator rather than ALEC itself, with no mention that the bill was pre-voted on by corporations through ALEC or even connecting the bill to ALEC. The task forces obscure how “corporations [get] access and influence for which they'd otherwise be publicly scrutinized." Nick Penniman, "Outing ALEC: The Most Powerful Lobby You've Never Heard Of," The American Prospect, Volume 13, Issue 12, July 1, 2002, p. 12

Some ALEC "Model" bills:

Through ALEC, Bank of America has written legislation that says seniors should be forced to give up their homes, signing over their homes through a reverse mortgage, in order to qualify for the state benefit, Medicare.

ALEC was behind the deregulation of utilities back when Enron was pulling $5 trillion out of the economy….transfer of wealth….

ALEC crafted model legislation designed to ban a Canadian-style, single-payer healthcare system: Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has a history of using its web of state legislative connections to drive national debate, quietly pushing the agenda of its corporate backers [see Kusnetz, "Where Bad Bills Come From," June 28]. With its model legislation, the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, ALEC is encouraging state legislators to begin chipping away at the central components of the Obama administration's healthcare reform before it's fully implemented. What's more, ALEC and its allies have already contributed to a growing legal challenge that could give the conservative Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn the legislation even if Congress does not.

Here’s a partial list of ALEC politicians who promote anti-union legislation, prison privatization, pension fund destabilization, deregulation of workplace and environmental safety, etc.

Wisconsin: Scott Walker
Florida: Rick Scott
Michigan: Rick Snyder
New Jersey: Chris Christie
Pennsylvania: Tom Corbett
Kansas: Sam Brownback
South Carolina: Niki Haley
Arizona: Jan Brewer
Maine: Paul LePage

Holdovers include:
Louisiana: Piyush Jindal
Mississippi: Haley Barbour
Indiana: Mitch Daniels

Links:

Ghostwriting the Law for Corporate America

ALEC Exposed

ALEC funding

Publicopoly Exposed How ALEC, the Koch brothers and their corporate allies plan to privatize government.

Prison Economics Help Drive Ariz. Immigration Law

Koch/ALEC Cabal - a Smoking Gun for financial connections and control...