American Legislative Exchange Council Transparency and Public Engagement
The American Legislative Exchange Council is America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization, comprised of nearly one-third of the country’s state legislators. The Council provides a unique opportunity for state lawmakers, business leaders and citizen organizations from around the country to share experiences and develop state-based, pro-growth models based on academic research, existing state policy and proven business practices. The Exchange Council is a non-profit, educational policy organization that facilitates substantive, academic discussions.
The American Legislative Exchange Council provides a forum to facilitate the exchange of policy ideas from a variety of perspectives. Model policy and resolutions are developed by organization members and may or may not reflect the positions of any individual member, company, association, or non-profit.
Only elected officials (public-sector members) can introduce policy for discussion and potential adoption as model policy, and only the Board of Directors, comprised solely of elected officials can approve policy for the organization. All adopted model policy merely represents the perspectives of the American Legislative Exchange Council and its members. Policies need to be introduced, reviewed, debated and voted on by elected officials in their respective state legislatures in order for a law to be enacted.
The American Legislative Exchange Council and its eight task forces closely imitate the state legislative process: resolutions are introduced and assigned to an appropriate task force based on subject and scope; meetings are conducted where experts present facts and opinion for discussion, just as they would in committee hearings; these discussions are followed by a vote. All adopted model policies are subject to a five-year review and sunset process, whereby outdated policy is removed and no longer endorsed by the organization.
Council task forces operate with transparency and serve as testing grounds to judge whether resolutions can achieve consensus. To further transparent operations, all adopted model policies are published at www.alec.org to promote increased education and the open exchange of ideas across America.
As of April 2012, the American Legislative Exchange Council eliminated the Task Force on Public Safety and Elections and sunset all model policy related to social issues, firearms, voter identification, immigration and elections. The Council focuses solely on pro-growth, economic issues to increase opportunity for all Americans.