Political groups demand legislators end taxpayer-funded ALEC memberships

Telephone town hall reaching 30,000 homes on Tuesday night will educate Iowans about ALEC

DES MOINES — Citizens for a Healthy Iowa and Progress Iowa today launched www.SayNoToALEC.com, a petition demanding state legislators end their taxpayer-funded membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The two organizations will also hold a telephone town hall reaching 30,000 Iowa households on the evening of Tuesday, October 23.

“Iowans are good people and we have deep ties to our land,” said Mark Langgin, spokesman for Citizens for a Health Iowa. “Our rich agricultural history is at risk when shadowy, out of state groups like ALEC move into Iowa to fundamentally change the way we preserve our natural heritage. They want to sell our public lands to the highest bidder, rollback common sense protections for clean drinking water and other environmental regulations. Instead of pushing back against ALEC, Iowa legislators are sending them our tax dollars.”

“Our elected officials should represent us – not ALEC or any other out of state interest group,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa. “ALEC is corrupting our legislative process in Iowa to push their extreme agenda and buy our legislators. What’s even worse is that our tax dollars fund their special interest group. It’s time Iowans stop subsidizing these stealth lobbyists, and demand that our legislators represent us, not ALEC.”

In ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills.

In the Iowa House of Representatives, ALEC members use taxpayer money to pay their dues to this shadowy special interest group that wants to:

• Sell public lands so big corporations can drill for oil & gas
• Rollback common sense regulations that protect our water & air
• Pollute our air & water while leaving taxpayers with the bill
• Let corporations off the hook for exposing children to toxic chemicals.

To continue educating Iowans about ALEC and the impact of their policies on the environment, Citizens for a Healthy Iowa and Progress Iowa will host a telephone town hall on Tuesday, October 23 at 7:00 PM reaching 30,000 households.