The American Legislative Exchange Council — better known as ALEC, is a non-profit group made up of former Republican lawmakers and CEOs that helps push the GOP agenda to both the federal and state governments.
Recently, an investigative report from WXIA’s 11 Alive found ALEC members and Georgia legislators holed up at a fancy resort in Savannah, writing and voting on bills behind closed doors.
11 Alive‘s Brendan Keefe spoke with Georgia senator and former ALEC member Nan Orrock (D), who called the group a “corporate bill mill.”
“There are votes taken that have the corporate folks at the same table, voting with the legislators on what bills to pick,” Orrock said. “That, at its core, just screams out inappropriate.”
Orrock also said that not only were the corporate votes equal to those of the politicians, ALEC even wrote the bills for them. The bills are basically legislative MAD-LIBS, with blanks for the lawmakers to fill in their own state’s details.
Keefe, despite being fully credentialed, was kicked out of the closed-door meeting and police were called to escort him out of not only the meeting, but the hotel itself. He did manage, however, to catch Georgia state legislators and lobbyists admitting that the lobbyists “subsidized” the legislators trip to the resort.
Watch the full, eye-opening report from 11 Alive.
