The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism.
That description comes from the ALEC website. It also says the organization provides a forum for state legislators and private sector members to collaborate on model bills — draft legislation that members may customize for their own legislatures.
It was those model bills several years ago that brought ALEC to the attention of Wyoming legislators.
The situation was very much like it is today, only this time it is orchestrated by members of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
So having model bills introduced in the Wyoming Legislature from national groups, conservative or liberal or neither, is not a new thing.
ALEC bills drew attention because of its large corporate membership and privacy rules that restricted access to reporters and the public on the organization’s conferences and meetings.
Secrecy is one sure way to attract and energize reporters to find out what is being hidden.
There were stories in he New York Times and other publications about journalists being ejected from ALEC meetings.
Meanwhile in the Wyoming Legislature, the Democrats — with ALEC in mind — tried to get a rule through that would require bill sponsors to identify the source of certain proposed legislation.
It went nowhere, although I thought that was a great idea for all bills: full disclosure where they came from, whether that was the governor’s office, the petroleum industry, the Wyoming Education Association or ALEC.
Recently, the Legislature’s Management Council, consisting of legislative leaders, tried to find a way to pay expenses for lawmakers who want to attend ALEC sessions, according to a video of the meeting.
The council had rejected paying for ALEC attendance in the past, said Rep Mike Yin, D-Jackson, one of the longer-term members, because the organization has a particular ideological stance.
That is no longer an obstacle with so many council members part of the Freedom Caucus, which has an ideology and agenda very much like ALECs.
Senate Majority Leader Tara Nethercott of Cheyenne said ALEC seems to be transparent, so perhaps the organization has relaxed some of its privacy rules.
She suggested the need for legislators to acquire education from different organizations to bring them up to date on hot topics, like nuclear issues.
Her position was consistent with the absence of any resistance in the council against finding a way to allow Wyoming legislators to attend ALEC meetings at the expense of taxpayers.
That demonstrates how the Wyoming Legislature has been transformed during a few years to become a hard right-wing institution.
The request for ALEC involvement came from Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, an ALEC board member. He noted the Legislative Service Office pays for legislators to attend two meetings a year to either the Council on State Governments or the National Council of State Legislatures, both nonpartisan organizations.
The annual dues for those two organizations are anywhere between $100,000 to $200,000.
Laursen suggested the Legislature allow a stipend of $5,000 for each legislators to attend meetings of their choosing. That's a potential outlay for the 93 legislators of $465,000.
Another proposal was to allow lawmakers to individually ask for reimbursement for the cost of attending ALEC meetings.
Those ideas didn’t fly because of the Legislative Service Office’s policy on the use of pubic funds, advised Legislative Service Office Direct Matt Obrecht.
And ALEC can't become the third choice on the list because of its different organizational structure.
The solution, Obrecht suggested, is a policy change that could be handled through emails.
The council, meanwhile, did not give the two research organizations high marks.
Senate President Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, said he attended a National Confrence of State Legislatures, but was not impressed. The discussion was on marijuna, a topic he had no interest in, he said, noting he felt the organization had a liberal bias.
Yet Biteman said he did enjoy connecting with a legislator from another state.
The council, again at Obrecht’s suggestion, decided to invite officials from CSG and NCSL to a council meeting to explain the benefits of their memberships.
Given the negative comments of council members, they better be good or one or both may be dumped in favor of ALEC.
