Texas Lawmakers Latest To Cut Ties With ALEC
Source: Huffington Post
Thirteen Texas state legislators -- 10 Republicans and three Democrats -- became on Thursday the most recent in a stream of lawmakers to sever ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate-funded organization that offers right-wing model legislation to member lawmakers across the nation.
The latest wave of departures comes in addition to the 12 other Texas legislators who left ALEC April of this year. As of Thursday, no Democratic lawmakers in the state are members of the organization, according to Progress Texas, an organization that lobbies against ALEC's influence in the state.
"These legislators have shown the courage of their convictions by standing up to a corporate bill factory and declaring their support for the people of Texas above all else," Matt Glazer, executive director of Progress Texas, said in a statement.
ALEC has come under fire for providing model bills that would, among other things, defund unions and decrease their influence, gut environmental regulations, privatize public schools and increase incarceration at the the behest of the private prison industry.
Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/16/thirteen-texas-legislators-cut-ties-with-alec_n_1791283.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
djean111
(14,255 posts)oh wait! I can't help it! I live in Florida, where a legislator forgot to take the ALEC heading off of a bill she introduced! - but I think ALEC has merely done enough harm under the ALEC name, and will be back under some other creepily innocuous heap of letters. Quitting ALEC now, after they have done so much harm, is after the fact stuff.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)that this is all a slow moving shell game.
SLOWLY these groups are supposed to be quitting but I'll just bet ya that the set up of a new and improved (that means more hidden) ALEC is already progressing.