Apr 2, 2012
American Legislative Exchange Council – Federal Government and Corrupt Practices
This is a report issued by VLTP in November of 2011. This work represents more than 2 years of deep research involving a handful of researchers who belong to VLTP’s sister group, American Legislative Transparency Project (ALTP) at the Daily Kos.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of ALEC’s involvement and influences at the federal level of our government. Some of the mechanisms used by ALEC to facilitate passage of federal legislation important to them and their corporate members are identified. Beginning in 2005 ALEC created a tenth task force specifically for influencing the U.S. Congress through their “alumni” serving as Senators and Representatives.
Organizations, foundations and think tanks funded and controlled by individuals such as Charles and David Koch are identified as well as their roles in advancing ALEC and the Koch conservative agenda. The mechanisms, individuals and procedures used to promote pro-corporate initiatives are all here in this report.
For those wishing to understand precisely how and why our Congress has been so dysfunctional and unwilling to work together over the past decade, this will serve as an explanation. We encourage any ALEC research group or individuals reporting on ALEC to read this 77 page report that is filled with links, documentation and factual statistics, names and other important information on the American Legislative Exchange Council.
Below is a partial listing from the Introduction…
ALEC Alumni Forum
By 2001 ALEC had a large active membership comprised of state lawmakers and corporate representatives and lobbyists. They had been successfully developing and implementing legislation at the state level for more than a quarter century. Many of their members had moved on to positions within the federal government or had been elected to Congress over the years. In an effort to increase their successful influence, ALEC began to advance their initiatives at the federal level. To facilitate this, ALEC created a “Forum” where state (members) and federal (alumni) lawmakers could interact and work to advance ALEC’s conservative, free market, pro-corporate initiatives and legislation at the Congressional level.
Federal Forum Task Force
With success brought about at the federal level through their Alumni Forum ALEC created an actual tenth “Task Force” in 2005. This TF was officially co-chaired by two ALEC alumni: one Senator and one House member. Their duties are to advance the initiatives presented at the state level directly to the U.S. Congress and to lobby in both Houses on behalf of these issues. They have successfully brought about the enactment of federal laws through this TF utilizing ALEC‘s numerous alumni and lobbying.
Influencing and Corrupting the Federal Judiciary
Free trips for state and federal judges with pro-corporate seminars given by think tanks, corporate executives and associates is discussed with links, facts and names involved. Influence upon and associations with key SCOTUS Justices are divulged. Research reveals more than five hundred judges have willingly taken these excursions and attended the pro-corporate seminars.
Anyone wishing more information or have information they would like to share about ALEC/Koch, please contact us via info@vltp.net.
Michigan Needs ALEC Accountability Act NOW (Bonus: Who is Richard McLellan?) « Blogging for Michigan
Aug 17, 2012 @ 15:17:37
[...] For in depth ALEC Investigations and Spelunking VISIT the Voter Legislative Transparcy Project (VLTP.net) driven by Kos bloggers and others – Hidden ALEC Memberships EXPOSED and ALEC Federal Government and Corrupt Practices Report. [...]
Aug 17, 2012 @ 16:44:53
Be assured that Hector noted that he cross posted credit for your article on the full Daily Kos article that you will see if you click on the link at the end of his post there. What we do is post a teaser, an then provide a link back to the source as we want people to get credit for their work.
If you would like to have your ALEC/Koch/Cabal-related articles posted directly on our web site, if you will please send them to me at ronrabatsky@vltp.net I will gladly post them on our site for you with your own by-line.
Michigan is the “testing ground” for ALEC right now–the ALEC Michigan Report that was recently published unfortunately had
numerous
omissions and errors. I would love to have a knowledgeable source about Michigan such as yourselves publish an article that notes these and notes the corrections to the errors. We have a large contingent of Michigan members on our web site and on our Facebook pages who would love to see this information as they know what is erroneous and misses a lot of important things about ALEC’s history in Michigan. I would be glad to send you links to help you with this and help with any research where you run into a brick wall.
I sincerely hope that you will take me up on these offers–you folks do a tremendous job.
Aug 19, 2012 @ 02:35:43
I have signed up for your RSS feed at my home computer, and will watch out for your original articles re ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and the Cabal for reposting with a link back to your site.
If you need any research on future articles about ALEC, Chucky and Davy, or other members or funders of the Cabal, and their affect on any specific group or legislation, please don’t hesitate to contact me. It is our mission to shine a bright light on these radical right wing groups and thus let the public know how they re being manipulated.
Best,
Ron