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Ford Becomes the Latest Big Company to Dump ALEC
In the last five years, more than a hundred corporations have left the conservative non-profit.
By BillMoyers.com Staff | February 17, 2016
Ford Motor Company has announced it’s dropping out of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative think tank that passes along drafts of corporate-authored legislation to state politicians, who are then encouraged to introduce the bills as their own.
“As part of our annual budget review in 2015, we adjusted our participation in several groups. We will not be participating in ALEC in 2016,” a spokesperson for the car company confirmed to the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch and Talking Points Memo. ALEC gives members like Ford access to state legislators at all-expenses-paid conferences, and allows the companies to help shape “model legislation.”
Over the last several years, as reporters have shed a light on ALEC’s machinations, many companies have quit the organization. PR Watch, which tracks the group, has counted 108 corporations and 19 non-profits that have left ALEC since 2011, including Google, Microsoft, Shell, BP, American Electric Power, General Electric and eBay.
Funded by wealthy right-wing donors, including the Koch brothers, ALEC has encouraged legislation at the state level that would weaken unions and combat gun control regulations. In recent years, the group has attracted deeper scrutiny as it was revealed to be a major force behind state voter ID laws that effectively disenfranchise millions, and the stand-your-ground self-defense laws that played a role in the Florida shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
By BillMoyers.com Staff | February 17, 2016
Ford Motor Company has announced it’s dropping out of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the conservative think tank that passes along drafts of corporate-authored legislation to state politicians, who are then encouraged to introduce the bills as their own.
“As part of our annual budget review in 2015, we adjusted our participation in several groups. We will not be participating in ALEC in 2016,” a spokesperson for the car company confirmed to the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch and Talking Points Memo. ALEC gives members like Ford access to state legislators at all-expenses-paid conferences, and allows the companies to help shape “model legislation.”
Over the last several years, as reporters have shed a light on ALEC’s machinations, many companies have quit the organization. PR Watch, which tracks the group, has counted 108 corporations and 19 non-profits that have left ALEC since 2011, including Google, Microsoft, Shell, BP, American Electric Power, General Electric and eBay.
Funded by wealthy right-wing donors, including the Koch brothers, ALEC has encouraged legislation at the state level that would weaken unions and combat gun control regulations. In recent years, the group has attracted deeper scrutiny as it was revealed to be a major force behind state voter ID laws that effectively disenfranchise millions, and the stand-your-ground self-defense laws that played a role in the Florida shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
http://billmoyers.com/story/ford-becomes-the-latest-big-company-to-dump-alec/
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