About ALEC Exposed
Welcome to ALEC Exposed!
ALEC Exposed is published by the Center for Media and Democracy.
On July 13, 2011, we unveiled this trove of 867 "model" bills secretly boted on by posted the 867 “model” bills and resolutions secretly voted on by corporations through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). These bills reveal the corporate collaboration reshaping our democracy.
ALEC bills, which largely benefit the organization’s corporate members, have been introduced in legislatures in every state—but without disclosing to the public that corporations previously drafted or voted for the bills via ALEC. Until our publication of the trove of bills, it has been difficult to trace the numerous controversial bills popping up in legislatures across the country directly to ALEC and its corporate underwriters.
The Center obtained copies of the bills approved by corporations through ALEC meetings, after one of the thousands of people with access shared them, and a whistleblower provided a copy to the Center. We have analyzed and marked up the bills and resolutions to help readers understand what the bills do, beyond the PR in the names of the legislation, and be able to identify them in state legislatures across the country. We have also included information about the corporations that bankroll ALEC.
You can read the bills without signing up to be a contributing editor of this site. But, we hope readers team up with reporters to dig through the cache of documents and help add to the analysis of them. You can do this by writing about the bills or writing about the bills in your state, on this site. You can also join us in documenting information about the corporations, politicians, and others involved in ALEC through our sister website, SourceWatch.org. (The "how-to" is explained on the help page of ALEC Exposed.)
These bills and resolutions reach into almost every area of American life: worker and consumer rights, education, the rights of Americans injured or killed by corporations, taxes, health care, immigration, and the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink. Only by seeing the depth and breadth and language of the bills can one fully understand the power and sweep of corporate influence behind the scenes on bills affecting the rights and future of every American.
Please join us in exposing ALEC, its corporations and politicians, and how money has corrupted the democratic process. Click here to read a letter from the publisher.
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