{"id":1704,"date":"2011-07-27T09:02:33","date_gmt":"2011-07-27T13:02:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/alec-crafts-state-laws-including-for-private-prisons-and-big-oil.html"},"modified":"2011-07-27T09:02:33","modified_gmt":"2011-07-27T13:02:33","slug":"alec-crafts-state-laws-including-for-private-prisons-and-big-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/alec-crafts-state-laws-including-for-private-prisons-and-big-oil.html","title":{"rendered":"ALEC crafts state laws, including for private prisons and big oil"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALEC writes laws for big oil and for private prison companies.
\nIn the
\n
\nfirst LAKE post about the proposed private prison in Lowndes County,<\/a>
\nI pointed out that ALEC helped CCA lobby for that Arizona “anti-immigration”
\nlaw that actually is stuffed with new jail, misdemeanor, and felony penalties<\/a> that
\nbring more “customers” to CCA private prisons.
\nGeorgia was just the first of
\n24 states lobbied by ALEC to pass such bogus bills for CCA’s private profit.<\/a>
\nSince then other people have dug into ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, and found its tentacles everywhere, promoting profits
\nfor big business at taxpayer expense.<\/p>\n

\nAlison Fitzgerald wrote for Bloomberg 21 July 2011,
\n
\nKoch, Exxon Mobil Among Corporations Helping Write State Laws<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/a>
\nKoch Industries Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) are among companies
\nthat would benefit from almost identical energy legislation introduced
\nin state capitals from Oregon to New Mexico to New Hampshire — and
\nthat’s by design.<\/p>\n

\nThe energy companies helped write the legislation at a meeting organized
\nby a group they finance, the American Legislative Exchange Council,
\na Washington-based policy institute known as ALEC.<\/p>\n

\nThe corporations, both ALEC members, took a seat at the legislative
\ndrafting table beside elected officials and policy analysts by paying
\na fee between $3,000 and $10,000, according to documents obtained by
\nBloomberg News.<\/p>\n

\nThe opportunity for corporations to become co-authors of state laws
\nlegally\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

\nthrough ALEC covers a wide range of issues from energy to
\ntaxes to agriculture. The price for participation is an ALEC membership
\nfee of as much as $25,000 — and the few extra thousands to join one
\nof the group\u2019s legislative-writing task forces. Once the \u201cmodel
\nlegislation\u201d is complete, it’s up to ALEC’s legislator members to
\nshepherd it into law.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is just another hidden way for corporations to buy their way into
\nthe legislative process,\u201d said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause,
\na Washington-based group that advocates for limits on money in politics.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nost so much just another, as one of the most effective,
\nbecause effectively secretive.
\nALEC’s activities have not been well known until recently.
\nAs a private company, it doesn’t have to file reports on
\nits members, funding, or activities.<\/p>\n

\nBloomberg used tax records, interviews, and ALEC materials provided by an
\nattendee at an ALEC conference to shed some light on the organization,
\nwhich promotes state legislative action that at times is aimed at
\nundercutting federal government authority.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\nSo what does ALEC do?<\/p>\n

\nTo join ALEC, legislators pay $100 for a two-year membership. Corporate
\nmembers seeking to hold sway on legislative language can pay as much as
\n$35,000 or more to get a seat on an issues task force. Beyond energy
\nand environment, ALEC also has task forces devoted to civil justice,
\ncommerce, education, international relations, public safety, taxes and
\ntelecommunications.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among this wide array of lobbying activities, the Orwellian
\ntopics of “civil justice” and “public safety” include lobbying
\nfor private prisons, even though privatization of justice is
\nno justice at all and cutting costs by decreasing prison guards
\nmakes the public less safe.<\/p>\n

\nALEC isn’t just a lobbying group, it’s a shadow national government:<\/p>\n

\nLegislators and private-sector task force members must vote to endorse
\nany model legislation — and each group must deliver a majority before
\nit is officially adopted, Weber said.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How can poorly paid state legislators afford to go to ALEC meetings?<\/p>\n

\nCompanies can also donate to \u201cscholarship funds,\u201d which pay for
\ntransportation, hotel and meals for lawmakers attending ALEC meetings.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wonder how much of that gets reported by legislators.
\nTransparency isn’t a big feature of ALEC:<\/p>\n

\nCorporations are \u201cpaying for an opportunity to connect directly with
\nlegislators,\u201d said Jeremy Kalin, a former Democratic Minnesota state
\nrepresentative. \u201cIt\u2019s an end-run around transparency and disclosure
\nlaws. Corporate interests that would otherwise be required to register
\nas lobbyists are writing legislation behind closed doors.\u201d\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wonder which Georgia state legislators are ALEC members?<\/p>\n

\nAnyway, we don’t need a private prison in Lowndes County, Georgia,
\nso CCA can profit from ALEC-lobbied bills.
\nSpend that tax mony on rehabilitation and education instead.<\/p>\n

\n-jsq<\/p>\n

\nPS: Owed to Garry Gentry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALEC writes laws for big oil and for private prison companies. In the first LAKE post about the proposed private prison in Lowndes County, I pointed out that ALEC helped CCA lobby for that Arizona “anti-immigration” law that actually is stuffed with new jail, misdemeanor, and felony penalties that bring more “customers” to CCA private […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97,140,1113,2,19,1381,72,73,178],"tags":[8744,4044,8817,8705,8701,8830,8730,963,7,75,1297,1188,2712,8749],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-alec","category-cca","category-government","category-history","category-immigration","category-incarceration","category-safety","category-vlcia","tag-alec","tag-big-oil","tag-cca","tag-education","tag-georgia","tag-immigration","tag-incarceration","tag-lobbying","tag-lowndes-county","tag-prison","tag-private-prison","tag-privatization","tag-rehabilitation","tag-vlcia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}