The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a secretive “charity” that is run and funded by large corporations that subsidize the involvement of state lawmakers. New insights from news reporter Brandon Keefe, who attempted to attend ALEC’s spring meeting, shows the organization’s complete lack of transparency – which is contrary to the reasoning behind many of its bills. Keefe was eventually kicked out of the meeting, and the police were called to ensure he stayed out.
Prior to being kicked out, however, Keefe’s conversations with lobbyists and legislators revealed that the lobbyists’ fees to attend ALEC events actually help subsidize legislators. Despite this admission to Keefe (recorded on his hidden camera) and ALEC’s claims of “transparency”, the organization later denied to Keefe that ALEC legislators are being subsidized by corporate lobbyists.
Those lawmakers push for the enactment of model bills written by the corporations that pay them – bills that would benefit those big corporations. Bills like the “Furthering Asbestos Claim Transparency (FACT) Act.” ALEC and the national Chamber of Commerce are leading the effort to pass the FACT Act in the United States.
In 2013, asbestos companies used their political influence to first introduce the FACT Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. Under the guise of transparency, the bill will delay, and in some cases, deny justice and badly needed compensation to people suffering from asbestos-related diseases.
Another example of this is Georgia’s Asbestos Claims Priorities Act, which was coincidently passed the same year that its sponsors received thousands of dollars to attend ALEC conferences. The bill maliciously limits who can file an asbestos claim against corporations in the state of Georgia.
In recent years, 104 major American corporations have cut ties with ALEC because of its controversial policies. One of those corporations was BP, which recently ended its affiliation with the organization. In addition to bills like the FACT Act, ALEC is responsible for other contentious bills and issues such as voter suppression laws, extreme gun laws and climate change denial.
Watch the investigative video below for more details.
You can learn more about the FACT Act by reading the below blogs:
