ALEC Grants Corporate Lobbyists 'Equal Vote' on Model Legislation for State Legislatures

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonprofit organization bringing together state legislators and corporate representatives, continued operating its model legislation system where corporate lobbyists receive “equal voice and vote” with elected officials in drafting bills. Analysis by 2011 revealed that corporation, think tank, and trade group members accounted for almost 99% of ALEC’s $7 million budget, with corporate lobbyists paying 100 times more in dues than state legislators. Between 2010 and 2018, ALEC model legislation was introduced in state legislatures approximately 2,900 times, with more than 600 bills enacted into law—often word-for-word from corporate-drafted templates.

Corporate Lobbyists Write Legislation Behind Closed Doors

ALEC’s structure grants corporate representatives direct legislative drafting authority through ten policy task forces covering areas like energy, healthcare, tax policy, and education. Corporate leaders and ALEC legislators meet in closed-door sessions to draft model legislation, with proposals typically originating from corporations, trade associations, or right-wing think tanks rather than elected officials or constituents. These bills are then distributed to ALEC’s network of roughly 2,000 state legislators across the country, who introduce them in their home legislatures—often without disclosing ALEC’s role or corporate authorship. This system allows corporations to essentially purchase legislation, bypassing normal democratic processes.

Scale of Legislative Capture

Research found that ALEC model bills are introduced in state legislatures “at a non-trivial rate” and have better passage rates than typical legislation. Over five decades, ALEC has facilitated the creation of hundreds of model bills affecting “the pocketbooks and rights of millions of Americans,” according to investigative reporting. The bills cover diverse topics including restricting voting rights, undermining environmental regulations, limiting workers’ rights, privatizing public services, and reducing corporate taxes. When ALEC legislation is introduced in state houses, it appears under the sponsoring legislator’s name with no mention of ALEC or corporate involvement, disguising its origins from voters and media.

Revolving Door and Committee Influence

ALEC’s model extends regulatory capture beyond federal committees to state legislatures, creating a nationwide network of corporate influence over lawmaking. State legislators who actively participate in ALEC often receive campaign contributions from ALEC corporate members, creating financial incentives to introduce and support model legislation. The revolving door operates here too—state legislators who champion ALEC bills may later join lobbying firms or corporate government relations departments, while corporate lobbyists gain legislative experience through ALEC that enhances their value to employers. This creates a self-reinforcing system where corporate interests increasingly dominate state policy.

Significance

ALEC represents perhaps the most brazen form of legislative capture in American democracy—a system where corporations openly purchase “equal vote” status with elected officials in writing legislation. The model’s success—600+ bills enacted from 2,900 introductions between 2010-2018—demonstrates how corporate money can systematically shape policy across all 50 states simultaneously. ALEC’s budget structure, with corporations providing 99% of funding, makes explicit what is often implicit in congressional committee capture: those who pay the bills write the rules. The lack of transparency—with bills introduced under legislators’ names without ALEC attribution—constitutes deception of voters who believe their representatives are authoring legislation in constituent interests. ALEC’s effectiveness revealed that regulatory capture had evolved beyond preventing regulations to proactively writing pro-corporate legislation and deploying it nationwide through a franchised network of compliant state legislators. The model demonstrated that when corporate influence operates through supposedly nonpartisan “legislative councils,” it can avoid the lobbying disclosure requirements and public scrutiny that might constrain more traditional influence campaigns.