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106 corporations depart ALEC, |
ALEC Exposed
Through ALEC, Global Corporations Are Scheming to Rewrite YOUR Rights and Boost THEIR Revenue |
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| Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state laws that govern your rights. These so-called "model bills" reach into almost every area of American life and often directly benefit huge corporations.
In ALEC's own words, corporations have "a VOICE and a VOTE" on specific changes to the law that are then proposed in your state. DO YOU? Numerous resources to help us expose ALEC are provided below. We have also created links to detailed discussions of key issues, which are available on the left. |
Who Is Behind ALEC? |
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| What Is ALEC?
ALEC Politicians (all states) |
Hot Topics |
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| Lobbying and Ethics Complaints |
State Reports |
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ALEC News |
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Koch Self-Interest in Criminal Justice Reform, Exposed But, as the Kochs ride the wave of momentum toward criminal justice reform, it is becoming increasingly clear that part of their agenda would actually make it harder to prosecute corporate violations of environmental and financial laws that protect the public from corporate wrongdoing. The changes would make it harder to hold executives and their employees responsible for violating U.S. laws and would protect their financial interests, at the public's expense. Over at least the past five years, the Kochs and Koch-backed groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have been pushing to increase the "intent" standard for criminal violations, particularly for so-called "white collar" crime and executive suite criminals. Read the rest of this item here. ALEC and ACCE Pay-to-Play Meeting: in the Belly of the Beast in Scottsdale In a new twist of the ALEC playbook, policymakers and lobbyists have formed a mini-ALEC called "ACCE," the American City and County Exchange. Its director, John Russell, has proclaimed that ACCE will do for cities what ALEC has done for states—which he described as serving as a "nonpartisan free market forum" for local elected officials to learn from "industry experts and policy analysts." Translation: while Congress is gridlocked, cities are driving progressive change, so let's use our fossil-fueled cash to put an end to such change. Read the rest of this item here. Major Electric Utility Dumps ALEC over Clean Power Plan AEP becomes the 107th identified corporation to have withdrawn funding since the Center for Media and Democracy launched the ALEC Exposed project in 2011, joining others such as Shell, BP, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. The loss of AEP will be particularly troubling for ALEC. AEP lobbyist Paul Loeffelman is still listed on the ALEC website as the private sector chairman for the group's Energy, Environment and Agriculture task force. This task force is the arm of ALEC promoting climate change denial to state legislators and driving its anti-environmental agenda. Read the rest of this item here. |
More ALEC News |
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Koch-Funded Special Interest Groups and Utilities Bankrolling ALEC MeetingKoch-funded groups and utilities are bankrolling ALEC's closed-door winter meeting and parties for state legislators that are underway in Scottsdale, Arizona, at a luxury resort and spa. The three-day gathering is bringing together lobbyists and legislators to plan their 2016 bill agenda for the upcoming legislative session. Koch-funded underwriters of the corporate bill mill's meeting includes the State Policy Network ("Chair's level" for $50,000); Frontiers of Freedom ("Vice Chair's level" for $25,000), and the Texas Public Policy Foundation ("Trustee's level" for $5,000), which recently hosted a conference of its own where numerous climate deniers criticized government action to address climate change. Read the rest of this item here. ALEC Works to Scuttle Global Climate AgreementTwo conferences took place 5,438 miles apart. The agendas could not be more different. The stakes could not be any higher. In Paris, 120 world leaders met under the auspices of the United Nations in an urgent effort to prevent catastrophic climate change, which threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions around the globe. In Arizona, global fossil fuel companies and giant utility firms went behind closed doors with American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) politicians in a continued effort to derail any global agreement with state lawsuits designed to sink President Obama’s Clean Power Plan with cement boots. Read more here. ALEC Invites Politicians to "Plan Your 2016 Agenda" at ALEC Confab in ScottsdaleThis year, the American Legislative Exchange Council's winter meeting, which it calls the "States and Nation Policy Summit," will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa from December 2-4. ALEC has promoted this event as an invitation for legislators to use the meeting to "plan your 2016 agenda." In Arizona, ALEC lawmakers will hear from a number of prominent speakers in corporate-sponsored plenary sessions and workshops, then retreat into "task force" meetings to vote as equals on "model bills" with corporate lobbyists and special interest groups. Read the rest of this item here. |
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ALEC - The Backroom Where Laws Are Born |
| This is a glimpse into the world of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-funded charity that pays for lawmaker trips to resorts where they leave with ready-to-pass bills.
Neither ALEC nor the Georgia legislature would show us where the money comes from, or who it goes to. |
A Charity for Lawmakers? ALEC Legislator Resigns to Become Lobbyist |
| Rep. Ben Harbin resigned after two decades as a Georgia legislator the same day as 11ALive reporters asked him for an interview about the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meeting where he was found behind closed doors with the top state lobbyist for the cell phone industry.
Atlanta's 11Alive follows up on its behind-the-scenes investigation of ALEC. |
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| ALEC Exposed is a project of the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). CMD does NOT accept donations from for-profit corporations or government agencies. More information about CMD is available here. You can reach CMD's Executive Director, Lisa Graves, via editor AT ALECexposed.org. Privacy policy: Other than material you post to this wiki in your name, our privacy policy is that we will not disclose private personally identifiable information or data about you, such as your name, email address, or other information, unless required by law. On copyright: ALEC Exposed considers contributions to this wiki to be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License or in accordance with law. Information on how to provide us with notice regarding copyright is available at this link. Notices regarding copyright or other matters should be sent to our designated agent, Lisa Graves, via email (editor AT ALECexposed.org). |
