Investigating Power
For more than 50 years, the American Legislative Exchange Council has moved a right-wing and pro-corporate Republican agenda of legislation in states across the country — all while posing as a nonpartisan, tax-exempt charity.
The Freedom Foundation, a notorious anti-union advocacy group, has launched a new organization, the Teacher Freedom Alliance, which the foundation’s CEO describes as “an alternative for pro-America educators who seek to restore traditional values in the classroom and provide students with the high-quality education they deserve — free from political influence and union control.”
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.
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.
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.
Trump is implementing a plan to make the wealthiest people in America far wealthier and more powerful, including Trump himself, and to turn American democracy into a giant corporation run by a handful of absurdly rich men.
Flint Hills Resources, a refining subsidiary of the industrial and petrochemical giant Koch, has been hit with a civil suit brought by commercial fishermen and shrimpers.
While leaders of both major parties were either celebrating their victories or mourning their losses after the November 5 elections, billionaire Charles Koch racked up a big win in Louisiana when Republican Governor Jeff Landry convened a special session of the state legislature on November 6 — the very next day — to overhaul the state’s tax system.
On December 5, right-wing culture warriors instructed lawmakers attending the American Legislative Exchange Council’s States and Nation Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., on the steps their states can take to upend policies and practices designed to help address the unfolding climate emergency and diversify workforces.
ALEC state politicians, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives are gathering at the four-star Grand Hyatt Washington to discuss and vote on model policies and resolutions to further climate delayism and preserve the use of fossil fuels, alter state election codes, protect purveyors of misinformation, privatize education, and push their extremist agenda in other ways.