American Legislative Exchange Council

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is a nonpartisan, ideologically conservative, non-profit 501(c)(3) membership association of state legislators composed primarily of Republicans. Among other activities, the group develops "model laws" for state legislatures. Approximately 2,400 legislators (⅓ of the state legislators in the United States) are members of ALEC.

The council was founded in 1973 by conservative political activist Paul Weyrich, who served as its treasurer from 1981 through 1992, Henry Hyde, Lou Barnett and others as a national network of state legislators working on issues such as opposition to abortion and the Equal Rights Amendment. By the 1990's ALEC had become an influential lobbying organization underwritten by contributions from various corporate interests.

ALEC mission statement is to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets, limited government, federalism, and individual liberty, through a non-partisan, public-private partnership between America’s state legislators and concerned members of the private sector, the federal government and the general public.

There are currently nine task forces, addressing a wide variety of public policy issues: Civil Justice; Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development; Criminal Justice; Education; Health and Human Services; Homeland Security; Natural Resources; Tax and Fiscal Policy; Telecommunications and Information Technology.

ALEC has over three hundred corporate sponsors. 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, Phillip Morris, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, the Church of Scientology, Exxon Mobil, the National Rifle Association, Amway, and others. It has been claimed by others that the group, which is funded primarily by large corporations, is controlled by those corporations, promotes their agendas and goals, and attempts to advance legislation which favors the interests of its corporate donors.^[1]

Critics, such as Joan Bokaer, describe ALEC as "a blend of traditional values conservatives with corporate money" where "social conservatives have the ability to get legislators elected by mobilizing through the megachurches, and corporations supply big funding and gain the ability to actually draft the bills presented in state assemblies."^[2] People for the American Way describes ALEC as "a right-wing public policy organization with strong ties to major corporations, trade associations and right-wing politicians" with an agenda of "agenda includes rolling back civil rights, 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."^[3]