[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5549-5550]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 AMERICAN LEGISLATIVE EXCHANGE COUNCIL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen, a shadowy 
collection of wealthy businesses and conservative Tea Party Republican 
State lawmakers is undermining our democracy.
  Last week I discussed the connection between the American Legislative 
Exchange Council, known as ALEC, and the proliferation of shoot first 
and ask questions later legislation that supported the Trayvon Martin 
case that we all know about, and other draconian criminal justice laws.
  According to the New York Times:

       ALEC lawmakers typically introduced more than 1,000 bills 
     based on model legislation each year and passed about 17 
     percent of them. A members-only newsletter from 1995, found 
     in an online archive of tobacco company documents, bluntly 
     characterized that success ratio as a ``good investment.''

  I agree. ALEC's corporate members have gotten an outstanding return 
on their investments, but it's been at yours and my expense. Due to 
ALEC, the NRA, and the private for-profit prison industry, we are all 
less safe and more likely to be put in jail.
  The for-profit prison industry, on the other hand, has reaped huge 
financial rewards from ALEC-sponsored efforts to incarcerate more 
Americans and put them, as well as illegal immigrants, into this 
private prison system. For the private prison industry, where some of 
the inmates are paid as low as 2 cents an hour to produce goods that 
are later sold for profit, business is booming.
  But ALEC does not stop there. ALEC's corporate members are some of 
the world's biggest polluters and most profitable oil companies. ALEC's 
corporate bill factory has ghost-written legislation on their behalf to 
combat efforts to address climate change and oppose national renewable 
energy standards, among others.
  In 1998, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, ALEC 
belched a resolution out of its smokestack calling on the U.S. to 
reject the Kyoto Protocol and banning States from regulating greenhouse 
gases. ALEC's Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force has since 
turned out model bills criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency.
  Recently, ALEC has focused on what it calls the ``EPA's regulatory 
train wreck,'' seeking to frame the EPA's enforcement of the Clean Air 
Act as ``higher prices, fewer jobs, and less energy.'' ALEC's dirty 
supporters, like the Koch brothers--named one of the United States' top 
10 air polluters in a University of Massachusetts study--began 
attacking every effort to clean up the mess that they themselves have 
made. Why? Because they want to continue to make more money.
  ALEC is dumping its waste right here in Congress. After the Tennessee 
coal ash disaster, ALEC began pushing a model resolution called 
Resolution to Retain State Authority over Coal Ash as Non-Hazardous 
Waste. Can you believe that? This resolution was approved by ALEC on 
June 3, 2010. Just over a year later, October 14, 2011, this

[[Page 5550]]

House passed a bill that authorizes States to adopt and implement coal 
combustion residuals permit programs.
  Mr. Speaker, this is only the tip of the melting iceberg. Yes, global 
warming is at work, and it is melting this iceberg that ALEC 
represents.
  I encourage the American people to visit the alecexposed.org Web 
site, where you can view leaked ALEC documents, including model bills, 
as well as a list of ALEC members. About 60 percent of the State 
legislators in this country are members of ALEC.
  Mr. Speaker, I'll return tomorrow with more on how corporations are 
using ALEC to install their agenda in the States and in Congress, 
undermining our basic rights and freedoms.

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