Template:ALEC News

ALEC News

ALEC's Corporate Sponsors Top Nation's Lawbreaker List The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has earned a reputation as a leading corporate influence group in recent years, with corporate lobbyists and legislators voting as equals in secret on scores of corporate bills to deregulate everything from the power and telecom industries to drug prices and health care. Well, it's no wonder. New research by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) shows that the pay-to-play lobby group’s biggest corporate funders are also among the nation's biggest violators of the health, safety, consumer, worker, and environmental protection laws ALEC seeks to dismantle. Read the rest of this item here. ALEC May Want to Reconsider This "Legislator of the Week" Award Utah Rep. Brian Greene Every week the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), together with the right-wing FreedomWorks, announces a "Legislator of the Week." This week, as the fate of Roy Moore, the GOP Senate candidate accused of dating and/or molesting teenagers while serving as an Alabama District Attorney hangs in the balance, ALEC decided to choose a legislator who has had trouble defining rape. Rep. Brian Greene (R-UT) is happy to introduce ALEC-Koch cookie-cutter bills into the Utah state legislature: "I have used their model policies on issues such as civil asset forfeiture reform and occupational licensing reform. As a result, I have been a leader in my state on both of these issues," boasted Greene. Read the rest of this item here. Koch Troops Queasy About Killing State and Local Tax Deduction to Fund Tax Breaks for the Rich The Koch brothers and their network of billionaire political spenders have made their marching orders to Republicans in Congress clear this year—kill the Affordable Care Act and pass sweeping new tax breaks for corporations and the top 1% or don’t come looking to us to bankroll your 2018 campaigns. But in order to execute those orders, lawmakers may have to pay a steep political price by eliminating health benefits and tax breaks that benefit millions of middle income voters as well as state and local governments. The Trump tax plan is already taking a pounding as a gift to the super rich and to Trump himself. The elimination of a popular tax deduction throws salt into the wound. Read the rest of this item here.