Dear John,

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is responsible for producing some of the most extreme far right state and federal legislation, from Stand Your Ground gun laws and voter ID laws that discriminate against people of color, to laws against reproductive rights, union organizing, and the right to protest.

But who exactly is writing these laws?

ALEC is funded by big corporate interests, but by the time ALEC passes their draft laws along to legislators to implement, ALEC has generally removed its fingerprints -- not to mention the fingerprints of the industries themselves -- so it appears as if the legislators are introducing the bills independently.

Although the industries don’t sign their names to the bills, we do know which corporations fund ALEC, and which -- mainly due to public pressure -- have dropped out.

We know that corporations are sensitive to their public images, and public pressure is important. Sign the petition today and tell corporations to stop funding ALEC’s extremist agenda!

Thanks to public pressure, since 2011, over 100 major corporations have dropped out of ALEC, including Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, 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!

ALEC is also fighting off an IRS whistleblower complaint filed by Common Cause, alleging that ALEC claimed to be a charity but actually operates as a political lobby. By claiming this bogus exemption, ALEC’s member corporations are able to take tax deductions on the millions of dollars they spend each year lobbying through ALEC, leaving taxpayers with the short end of the stick.

Fortunately, our voices matter. Sign the petition and make yours heard!

Thank you for keeping up the pressure to keep far-right lobbyists accountable.

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action