The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a corporate bill-mill, has laid out its priorities for this year’s state legislative sessions.
ALEC Pushes State Anti-Labor Agenda for 2025
By Juliana Broad | at
Featured Investigations
Growing Grassroots Resistance to Trump Outpaces Democratic Party and Its Leaders
By Colleen Scerpella | at
Behind closed doors last month, House Democrats expressed their frustration at an unexpected target: their own base.
In a North Dakota Courtroom, the Battle for Standing Rock Continues
By Winona LaDuke | at
Greenpeace and the owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline square off in court.
GOP and Koch Groups Want to Slash Medicaid to Pay for Trump’s Tax Cuts
By Don Wiener | at
In launching a $20-million campaign last month to persuade Congress to extend President Trump’s first-term Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Charles Koch’s astroturf group, Americans for Prosperity, boasted about making the largest investment of any other conservative group in support of Trump’s second-term legislative agenda.
Who is Brad Schimel, the Extremist Running for a Seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court?
By Tom O'Connor | at
Schimel, a Republican, previously served as Wisconsin’s attorney general from 2015–19. He has held close associations with several right-wing organizations and taken far-right positions on hot-button issues from abortion to guns, health care, and the J6 rioters who attacked the Capitol.
ALEC Publishes Its Own Project 2025 — for the States
By Colleen Scerpella | at
“Now, more than ever, is the time for states to lead.” This assertion by leaders of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) opens the organization’s Essential Policy Solutions playbook for 2025.
Utah Outlaws Collective Bargaining by Public Employees as Part of a Broader Assault on Unions
By Juliana Broad | at
The Utah Senate passed a House bill on Thursday that would outlaw public sector collective bargaining. Once signed by the governor, it will usher in one of the country’s most severe and restrictive rollbacks of union rights in recent memory.
State Freedom Caucuses Push MAGA Agenda, Tone Down Intra-Party Squabbles
By Don Wiener | at
For Republicans, the extreme right-wing freedom caucuses that have emerged in state legislatures in the past few years have played the same obstructionist role as the U.S. House Freedom Caucus.
Koch Spent $91 Million to Influence Higher Education in 2023
By David Armiak | at
A constellation of donor vehicles established by Charles Koch poured $90.8 million into 127 university and college recipients in 2023 to promote his business and policy interests, a Center for Media and Democracy analysis has found.
ALEC Member Strikes a Blow Against Rule Requiring Union Labor on Federal Construction Projects
By Juliana Broad | at
Contractors engaged in large federal construction projects can’t be required to enter collective bargaining agreements with building trade unions, a federal claims court ruled last week.