CHEYENNE — A group which some say is the one of the most powerful conservative think tanks in the U.S. met in late July in Salt Lake City.
This is the American Legislative Exchange Council, (ALEC) a group noted for proposing model bills that its of legislative members can take home with them, and introduce them in the next legislative session.
How many bills found their way into the briefcases of Wyoming legislators who attended and what do those bill say? Dunno.
How many Wyoming legislators attended the July meeting and who are they? Dunno.
The Wyoming Legislative Service Office doesn’t reimburse legislators for the cost of attending ALEC meeting so there’s no record there.
Although the group allows the public and media folks to attend some sessions they are not those meetings where major decisions are made, according to the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch web site.
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ALEC offers a list of its bills and its officers, including state chairmen on its web page. In Wyoming the chairs are Sen. Cheri Steinetz and Rep. Dan Laursen.
For its July 2021 meeting, ALEC planned to address ways the lawmakers can navigate the COVID-19 recovery and the federal money pouring into the states. Consequently, you can expect a flood of model bills in state Legislature nationwide dealing with this issue.
One of its 2020 model bills was aimed at reining in the emergency powers of governors triggered by the pandemics impact on public health. Ir was called the Emergency Limitation Act.
According to the National Conference on State Legislatures, legislative chambers in at least 28 states, Guam and the Virgin Islands introduced more than 100 bills or resolutions in 2020 to limit governors’ powers or executive spending. Only ten states passed the law. Wyoming wasn’t one of them.
A 2019 investigation by the Center for Pubic Integrity, the Arizona Republic and USA Today found at least 10,000 bills copied from ALEC’s model legislation were introduced nationwide over an eight-yet period.
More than 2,100 were signed into law, the article said.
We didn’t hear much about ALEC in Wyoming legislative and government circles until about 2012. Opposition was already active with the creation in 2011 of the web page, “ALEC Exposed.”
As its title would suggest, this group followed ALEC closely and critically.
At about the same time, the Wyoming League of Women Voters adopted a resolution to require lawmakers to make public the origin of any model bills they introduced.
The idea prompted a lot of discussion but no action.
ALEC, meanwhile, was created in 1973 in Chicago by a small group of conservative activists and state legislators. Their broad goal was to support conservative ideas and make it easier to disseminate policies that advanced their cause.
Private-sector members pay at least $12,000 to join, with some paying much more depending on the level of access they seek, Joining an ALEC task force, where model legislation is drafted and debated behind closed doors, costs an additional $5,000, the study said.Lawmakers pay about $100 a year for membership in the organization.
During meetings, the legislators and families are feted and have opportunities to network with the different corporate sponsors, according to various internet sources.
Former state Rep. Pete Illoway, a Cheyenne Republican, and at one time legislative chairman for ALEC, said the meetings were an opportunity “to sit down and talk with folks without having the press around.”
He said the model bills must have value for legislators to vote for them.
He also said he spent time raising money for the scholarships that paid for the expenses of legislators who attended the meetings.
Currently the news is full of stories about all the states rushing to introduce bills to ban vaccine requirements and to ban teaching crucial race theory in schools and to encourage voter suppression.
These bills may be coming to a statehouse near you.
Remember, you can always ask your legislator: “Who wrote this bill?.”
Joan Barron is a former capitol bureau reporter. Contact her at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net