As we reported earlier this week, the Center for Media and Democracy has exposed the text of around eight hundred bills written by corporations and then seeded into state and federal legislatures by Republican lawmakers.
Oregon has not been immune to this corporate-written legislation.
The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is made up of corporate representatives and republican legislators from around the country.
John Nichols, the Washington Correspondent for the Nation magazine, says that corporate leaders founded the council because they were afraid of and threatened by civic democracy:
The bills that have been written by corporations and then submitted by Republican lawmakers to be turned into law affect almost every area of American life, from worker and consumer rights, to education, taxes, health care, immigration, and the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Julie Underwood is the Dean of Education at the University of Wisconsin says that one focus of the council has been on the Privatization of schools:
The Alec Exposed website has enlisted the help of volunteers and reporters to dig through the eight hundred pieces of ‘model legislation’ and find state bills based on the models.
KBOO’s investigative reporting team has begun investigating Oregon legislation, and found a disturbing resemblance between the 2011 bill establishing a Council on Efficient Government, and the corporate-written ‘model legislation’ entitled the ‘Council on Efficient Government Act’.
The Oregon bill reads almost word for word like the model legislation from ALEC. It creates a state council made up of representatives from the private sector appointed by the Governor, whose job is to examine public goods and services, and determine which ones should be privatized.
- KBOO