All About ALEC

There are several entities that do their best to control the legislation output in our state legislatures and in Congress. One of these groups is ALEC. That's the acronym for American Legislative Exchange Council. You can look them up here:  http://www.alec.org/ ALEC is a non-profit group of conservative legislators. It is also a think tank for conservative ideas. It provides a forum for private sector entities to give their input as to what types of legislation they want passed at the state level. The three driving forces highlighted at the top of their website are:  Limited government, free market, and Federalism.  In case you missed the Civics class, Federalism is "the constitutional relationship between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States.:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism_in_the_United_States

ALEC actually writes legislation that private corporations want enacted and supplies it to state elected officials. Often, legislators submit it exactly as written by ALEC.  This is where we get laws privatizing schools and prisons, weakening public employees pension funds, eliminating rules and regulations on businesses, right to work bills, and open-carry laws. 

How do you know if your elected state senator or representative is a member? Well, you can ask. Or you can go here and see if they are on the list:  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/ALEC_Politicians

For more information about ALEC, check out this site:  http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

If you find your representative belongs, please let them know what you think of that. And, please share this information with others so they can also be informed.