After
a long flirtation, the GOP and ALEC are taking steps toward making
their relationship official. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange
Council, is a controversial advocacy group that helps corporations and
conservative interest groups write bills to be introduced in state
legislatures across the country. ALEC “model legislation” includes
rollbacks on environmental and labor regulation, voter ID laws and
pro-gun laws, such as the “stand your ground” law that became infamous
after the death of Trayvon Martin in Florida earlier this year.
Recently, ALEC has come under increasing scrutiny, leading at least
38 major corporations to drop their sponsorship of the organization, including GE and Sprint, which pulled out just two weeks ago.
Despite
this, the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of over 160 conservative
lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives, which functions like
the official in-house think tank for House Republicans, is taking steps
to establish a “partnership” with the corporate front group,
Roll Call’s Janie Lorber reports.
The RSC has been working quietly with ALEC to host an event with
federal and state lawmakers at the conservative Heritage Foundation on
Friday. Paul Teller, the executive director of the RSC, was happy to
embrace the ALEC. “Frankly, this gathering is long overdue … As
Washington encroaches more and more into state and local spheres, it’s
important that conservative legislators at the federal and state levels
collaborate on policies to stop and roll back the ever-expanding federal
government.”
RSC Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, is
a member of ALEC,
along with several dozen other Republican congressmen. ALEC has only a
single Democratic member from the U.S. House, Rep. Dan Boren of
Oklahoma. Jordan’s campaign
paid dues
of $100 to ALEC in 2001 and 2011, and possibly other years, according
to documents published by ALEC Exposed, a project of the Center for
Media and Democracy. A handful of
GOP senators,
including Marco Rubio and Jim DeMint, are also members, along with
Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia. While many ALEC events serve as a
forum for corporate representatives to meet with lawmakers, there will
be no corporations represented at Friday’s event, which will feature at
least six federal and 18 state lawmakers.
ALEC
has also come under fire from good government groups, who argue that it
is in clear violation of tax
rules governing nonprofit organizations. Unlike 501(c)4 groups like Karl
Rove’s American Crossroads, which already skirt the legal boundaries of
political activity allowed for nonprofits, ALEC is a 501(c)3 charity.
These groups, which include every major charity, are even more strictly
limited in the political activity they can engage in. According to the
IRS, “In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3)
status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to
influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).”
Critics argue
that lobbying is the sole purpose of ALEC’s work, as it hooks up
corporations and lawmakers. Marcus Owens, the former head of the IRS’
Exempt Organizations division, which handles nonprofits, has
asked the agency to revoke ALEC’s tax-exempt status.
“To
the extent that ALEC officials themselves are at this event, they are
having lobbying contacts. … It seems to me that it’s probably a
slam-dunk,” Joe Birkenstock, a lawyer who works with Owens told Roll
Call.
But perhaps it is no surprise that the federal Republicans
and ALEC have finally gotten a room, and that it’s at the Heritage
Foundation. Republicans and ALEC have long held similar beliefs and
worked together on the state level. President Bush and other top
Republican leaders have spoken to ALEC. The group, which used to be a
nonpartisan corporate front group, happy to advance legislation to
either party, as long as it served its corporate backers, has
increasingly become the state-based arm of the Republican Party’s
progressively more conservative legislative agenda.
Alex Seitz-Wald is Salon's political reporter. Email him at aseitz-wald@salon.com, and follow him on Twitter
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