American Legislative Exchange Council
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| Abbreviation | ALEC |
|---|---|
| Motto | "Limited Government, Free Markets, Federalism" |
| Formation | 1973 |
| Type | Tax exempt, nonprofit organization, 501(c)(3) |
| Headquarters | 2900 Crystal Dr., 6th Fl. Arlington, Virginia |
| Coordinates | 38°50′49″N 77°03′08″W / 38.8470°N 77.0523°WCoordinates: 38°50′49″N 77°03′08″W / 38.8470°N 77.0523°W |
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Chairman
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Leah Vukmir |
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Budget
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Revenue: $7,322,531 Expenses: $8,510,952 (FYE December 2013) |
| Website | alec.org |
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a nonprofit organization of conservative state legislators and private sector representatives that drafts and shares model state-level legislation for distribution among state governments in the United States.
ALEC provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on model bills—draft legislation that members may customize and introduce for debate in their own state legislatures. ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening labor unions and opposing gun control. Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine. Approximately 200 model bills become law each year. ALEC also serves as a networking tool among state legislators, allowing them to research conservative policies implemented in other states. Many ALEC legislators say the organization converts campaign rhetoric and nascent policy ideas into legislative language.
ALEC's activities, while legal, received public scrutiny after being reported by liberal groups in 2011 and after news reports from outlets such as The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek described ALEC as an organization that gave corporate interests outsized influence. Resulting public pressure led to a number of legislators and corporations withdrawing from the organization.
ALEC was founded in 1973 in Chicago as the Conservative Caucus of State Legislators a project initiated by Mark Rhoads an Illinois state house staffer, to counter the Environmental Protection Agency, wage and price controls, and the defeat of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election. Conservative legislators felt the word "conservative" was unpopular with the public at the time, however, so the organization was renamed as the American Legislative Exchange Council. In 1975, with the support of the American Conservative Union, ALEC registered as a federal nonprofit agency.Bill Moyers and Greenpeace have attributed the establishment of ALEC to the influential Powell Memorandum, which led to the rise of a new business activist movement in the 1970s.
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