ALEC reports that it is the largest membership driven organization of legislators in the nation, and yet only two percent of its revenue comes from membership dues, according to The Center for Media and Democracy. The rest of the funding — as the organization works with a yearly deficit of approximately $1 million every year — is donated by captains of industry, Koch Companies, UPS, State Farm Insurance, the tobacco industry, the oil industry, the coal industry, big pharma, and big food-developers.
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“ALEC is a pay-to-play operation where corporations buy a seat on ‘task forces’ to advance their legislative agenda,” David Armiak, a writer and research at The Center for Media and Democracy, said. “The corporate lobbyists meet behind closed doors with legislators, out of the public eye, to craft and vote as equals on ‘model bills’ that legislators then take home to introduce. The same corporations often contribute to legislator campaigns calling into serious question the influence these corporations have over our lawmakers.