American Legislative Exchange Council - Organization

Organization

See also: List of members of the American Legislative Exchange Council

ALEC currently has more than 2,000 legislative members representing all 50 states, amounting to nearly one-third of all sitting legislators, as well as more than 85 members of Congress and 14 sitting or former governors who are considered "alumni". The vast majority of ALEC's legislative members belong to the Republican Party. ALEC also claims approximately 300 corporate, foundation, and other private-sector members. The chairmanship of ALEC is a rotating position, with a new legislator appointed to the position each year. The current chair of ALEC is David Frizzell, a member of the Indiana House of Representatives.

Day-to-day operations are run from ALEC's Washington, D.C. office by an executive director and a staff of approximately 30. ALEC By-Laws specify that, "...full membership shall be open to persons dedicated to the preservation of individual liberty, basic American values and institutions, productive free enterprise, and limited representative government, who support the purposes of ALEC, and who serve, or formerly serve, as members of a state or territorial legislature, the United States Congress, or similar bodies outside the United States."

In addition to the staff and members, ALEC has a board of scholars that advises and alerts the staff and members to upcoming issues. The board is composed of economics consultant Arthur Laffer, economics writer Stephen Moore, public law policy expert Victor Schwartz, economics professor Richard Vedder, and public policy activist Bob Williams.

Common Cause states that ALEC is comprised of nine “task forces”: 1) Public Safety and Elections; 2) Civil Justice; 3) Education; 4) Energy, Environment and Agriculture; 5) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development; 6) Telecommunications and Information Technology; 7) Health and Human Services; 8) Tax and Fiscal Policy; and 9) International Relations. Public and private sector members comprise each of the task forces—the public sector members are state legislators and the private sector members typically corporate lobbyists or sometimes right wing think tank representatives. These task forces generate the “model” legislation, which is then taken back to the states by ALEC’s legislative members.

According to Common Cause, ALEC receives 98% of its funding from corporations and foundations and 2% comes from membership dues paid by legislators and miscellaneous income. In 2010 NPR reported that tax records showed that corporations had collectively paid as much as $6 million a year.