FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Sean Soendker Nicholson, (573) 427-7326, sean@progressmissouri.org
FIRST THINGS FIRST: GOP LEADERS ALREADY FILING ALEC LEGISLATION FOR 2015 SESSION
Attacks on workers and voting rights inspired by corporate bill mill filed by ALEC task force members
JEFFERSON CITY – Legislation inspired by and written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) corporate bill mill was filed in the first hours of the 2015 pre-filing period that would take away the rights of workers and voters. Instead of filing legislation on issues that matter to Missourians like creating jobs and expanding Medicaid, legislators filed legislation inspired by ALEC model bills, designed to help ALEC’s corporate backers’ bottom line at the expense of Missouri families.
Representative Bill Lant, who has been an ALEC task force member, has already prefiled four bills attacking Missouri workers. HJR 2 and HB 47 are ALEC’s so-called ‘right to work’ attacks that have been repeatedly defeated in the legislature. HB 46 matches language in an ALEC model uncovered by Common Cause. HB 48 is an ALEC-inspired paycheck deception bill. Representative Lant has been a member of ALEC and served on the bill mill’s Commerce and Economic Development Committee which approved their model bills on right to work and paycheck deception. The language for HJR 2 and HB 46 are a direct match for language in the ALEC models.
Representative Tony Dugger, who has been a member of ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force, filed two bills (HB 30 and HJR1) to restrict voting rights for tens of thousands of eligible Missouri voters by imposing new government-issued photo identification rules. ALEC has made restrictive anti-voting laws a priority in the past, successfully pushing their model bill in multiple states. Dugger has long been a member of ALEC and has served on the ALEC task force which is responsible for approving their model legislation on voting issues.
For more on ALEC’s influence in the Missouri legislature, see Progress Missouri’s reports at www.ProgressMissouri.org/ALEC
