John,

When corporations want to have a secret hand in writing state and federal legislation, they turn to ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Through ALEC, corporate lobbyists meet secretly, behind closed doors, with invited far-right legislators as equal partners to co-write legislation designed to put corporate interests ahead of ordinary Americans. When legislators introduce the laws, there may be no indication of ALEC’s involvement, but the laws will benefit the corporations’ hidden agendas.

These laws have included some of the most extreme far-right legislation passed in recent years, such as Stand Your Ground gun laws, racially discriminatory voter ID laws, and laws against reproductive choice, union organizing, the right to protest, and environmental protections.

But corporations are also sensitive to their public image, and many have responded to the public’s demands. Sign the petition today and tell corporations to stop funding ALEC’s extremist agenda!

Thanks to the spotlight of public pressure, over 100 major corporations have dropped out of ALEC since 2011, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds, Walmart, Amazon, Bank of America, General Motors, Visa, Sprint, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, eBay, BP, T-Mobile, ExxonMobil, Verizon, and AT&T.

But many other corporations continue to participate, including Altria, Koch Industries, UPS, FedEx, Pfizer, Duke Energy, Charter Communications, Comcast, and Anheuser-Busch. They need to feel the heat of public disapprobation. ALEC often pays legislators “scholarships” to cover their travel to their behind-closed-doors gatherings. If not, then taxpayers pick up the bill.  

Now, Common Cause has filed a whistleblower complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, alleging ALEC has claimed to be a charity while actually operating as a political lobby, thereby violating its tax-exempt status. Due to ALEC’s “charity” tax exemption, member corporations take tax deductions on the millions of dollars they spend each year to support ALEC, again leaving taxpayers to pick up the difference.

The good news is, your voice makes a difference, Sign the petition and make your views known!

Thank you for helping close corporations’ secret channels to lawmakers.

- Amanda

Amanda Ford, Director
Democracy for America
Advocacy Fund