American Legislative Exchange Council

American Legislative Exchange Council
Abbreviation	ALEC
Motto	"Limited Government, Free Markets, Federalism"
Formation	1973
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Chairman	Noble Ellington
Website	alec.org

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a politically conservative 501(c)(3) nonprofit policy organization, consisting of both state legislators and members of the private sector, mostly representing corporations. ALEC's mission statement describes the organization's purpose as the advancement of free-market principles, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty. Among other activities, the group provides a venue for private individuals and corporations to assist politicians in developing what it considers model laws serving the economic and political aims of its members. ALEC also serves as a networking tool among state legislators, allowing them to research the handling and "best practices" of policy in other states.

ALEC currently has more than 2,000 legislative members representing all 50 states, as well as more than 85 members of congress and 14 sitting or former governors who are considered "alumni". ALEC also claims approximately 300 corporate, foundation, and other private-sector members. A list of ALEC leaders in the states includes 73 Republican lawmakers and 7 Democrats.

The chairmanship of ALEC is a rotating position, with a new legislator appointed to the position each year. The current chair of ALEC is Noble Ellington of the Louisiana House of Representatives. Day-to-day operations are run from ALEC's Washington, D.C. office by an executive director and a staff of approximately 30.

History

ALEC was founded in September 1973, when a small group of conservative state legislators and policy advocates met in Chicago with the stated purpose of founding "A nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty."

At that meeting, state legislators, including then Illinois State Representative Henry Hyde, activist Paul Weyrich, and Lou Barnett, a veteran of then Governor 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 Republican governors or members of congress. Congressional members who were active during this same period included Republican senators James Buckley of New York and Jesse Helms of North Carolina, as well as Republican congressmen Phil Crane of Illinois and Jack Kemp of New York.

ALEC policy-making process

ALEC sponsors three key meetings a year. The largest is the annual meeting, where more than 2,000 state legislators, private sector members, government representatives, and public policy experts come together to shape the organization's policies.

ALEC "model bills" are introduced and voted on separately at each of the three national meetings. The public sector board must approve a bill for it to become an offered piece model legislation.

There are currently eight task forces:

• Civil Justice
• Commerce, Insurance, and Economic Development
• Education
• Energy, Environment, and Agriculture
• Health and Human Services
• International Relations
• Public Safety and Elections
• Tax and Fiscal Policy
• Telecommunications and Information Technology

ALEC's public sector board of directors has thirty days to review, and approve or reject, each bill before it becomes "official ALEC policy". Each year approximately 800 bills based in whole or in part on ALEC model legislation are introduced in the states. Annually, about 20% of these introduced bills become law.

Since 1999, ALEC members have sought to reform the civil justice system.

Publications

• ALEC publishes a monthly magazine for its members entitled, Inside ALEC.
• In the field of education policy, ALEC authors the Report Card on American Education now in its fifteenth edition.
• On state economic competitiveness, ALEC has published, Rich States, Poor States, now in its fourth edition.

Controversies

National Public Radio, NPR, has aired several programs about ALEC and its influence in the drafting of legislation and one program, Shaping State Laws with Little Scrutiny, aired on October 29, 2010.

After the later NPR report was aired, ALEC released a statement responding to some of the accusations in the NPR story.

William Cronon

In March 2011, in the midst of protests surrounding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's collective bargaining restrictions, William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin devoted the first post on his newly-established Scholar as Citizen blog to the largely behind-the-scenes role of the little-covered ALEC in working for the passage of ideologically conservative legislation at the state level, pointing out that neither the model legislation which ALEC produces, nor the list of elected officials who are members of ALEC are publicly available. This resulted in the issuing of a FOIA request by the Wisconsin Republican Party to obtain all e-mail from Cronon's university account relating to Republican topics; Paul Krugman and the American Historical Association defended Cronon's right to conduct public political research, and decried the action as an apparent attempt at intimidation.

April 2011 protests

On April 29, 2011, hundreds gathered in Cincinnati to protest ALEC for the first time outside the group's Spring Task Force Meeting, and to vocalize demands for legislation serving the public interest. Teach-ins, a rally, street theatre, and a march led to a second protest in New Orleans at ALEC's Annual Meeting, held on August 3–6, 2011.

Whistleblower and ALEC Exposed

On July 13, 2011, the Center for Media and Democracy and The Nation published a file leak which made available more than 800 pieces of ALEC's model legislation, brought to them by an organizer of the Cincinnati ALEC protest. The files were leaked to the organizer, Aliya Rahman, via a two-point connection to a source inside ALEC.

For ALEC Exposed, the Center for Media and Democracy made a new website to house over 800 ALEC "model" bills which were previously unavailable to the public. It developed dozens of tools to enable citizens to track ALEC politicians, ALEC corporations and ALEC bills moving in their states.

Simultaneously, The Nation devoted a special edition of its magazine to breaking the story on ALEC Exposed, featuring expert analysis by John Nichols, Joel Rogers, Laura Dresser, Wendell Potter, Lisa Graves, Julie Underwood, Mike Elk, and Bob Sloan.

On July 14, 2011, the Los Angeles Times announced that government watchdog Common Cause would issue a challenge to ALEC's nonprofit status, on the grounds that ALEC "spends most of its resources lobbying, in violation of the rules governing nonprofit organizations."

On July 21, 2011, Terry Gross interviewed Louisiana Representative Noble Ellington, the current national chairman of ALEC, about the group's corporate members' role in drafting legislation. Gross, commenting on the fact that it is impossible for non-members to know whether pieces of legislation introduced in statehouses are based on ALEC models, asked if Ellington thought the process was transparent. Ellington responded saying, "[w]hile we may be discussing it, it may not be transparent, but before it's passed, legislators have to say, 'We approve this model legislation.' Not the corporations. They don't have a vote. Legislators say [what is introduced]. ... And then the legislators can introduce that legislation in [their] state. It goes through a committee, the public has input, they have an opportunity to talk to their legislators about the legislation — so I don't see how you can get more transparent than that." When asked if the public had a voice in the process Ellington responded that the "taxpaying public is represented there at the table because I'm there."

External links

• ALEC official Website
• ALEC Exposed project website
• Karen Olsson, Mother Jones, Ghostwriting the Law, September/October 2002
• Progressive States Network, "Governing the Nation from the Statehouses", February 2006
• July 2011 interview with journalist John Nichols on ALEC