The American Legislative Exchange Council is one of the most popular summertime legislative junkets for Texas lawmakers. In fact, QR once covered their conference as we do with the National Conference of State Legislature—that is until we were excluded from some work sessions of interest to our readers.
ALEC is a conservative organization funded by corporate dollars and credited with model legislation ranging from private prisons to what opponents call anti-clean air bills.
ALEC is now at the center of a storm stemming model “Stand Your Ground” legislation adopted in Florida and now linked to the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
Today, Progress Texas is rolling out a website petition identifying Texas lawmakers who belong to ALEC and asking supporters to “Tell Legislators to End Their Involvement in ALEC”.
Needless to say, the overwhelming majority of Texas lawmakers that belong to ALEC are Republican.
ALEC Executive Director Ron Scheberle said, "….the people now attacking ALEC and its members are the same people who have always pushed for big-government solutions. Our support for free markets and limited government stands in stark contrast to their state-dependent utopia. This is not about one piece of legislation. This is an attempt to silence our organization and it has been going on for more than a year.”
Multiple corporations have now ended their sponsorship of the group including Coca Cola, Pepsi, Wendy’s McDonalds, Intuit and more.
Progress Texas is a progressive research grant funded group. Their staff has roots in the Democratic blog Burnt Orange Report.
