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D I D YOU KNOW? Corporations VOTED to adopt this. Through ALEC, global companies

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“ALEC”
NEWShas long been a
secretive collaboration
between
BigLegislation
Business and
Model
“conservative” politicians.
Civil Justice
Behind closed doors, they
ghostwrite
“model”
bills to
Commerce,
Insurance,
and Economic
be introduced
in state
Development
capitols
across the country.
This agenda--underwritten
Education
by global corporations-Energy,
includes
majorEnvironment,
tax
and Agriculture
loopholes
for big industries
and the
super rich,
Federal Relations
proposals to offshore U.S.
Health
Human
jobs and
gut and
minimum
wage,Services
and efforts to
weaken
public health,
International Relations
safety, and environmental
Public Although
Safety andmany
protections.
Elections
of these
bills have become
law, until now, their origin
Tax and Fiscal Policy
has been largely unknown.
With ALEC
EXPOSED, the
Telecommunications
Centerand
forInformation
Media and
Technology
Democracy
hopes more
Americans will study the
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bills to understand
the
depth and Text-Only
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big corporations are
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changing the
legal
rules
and undermining democracy
across the nation.

By the Center for
Media and Democracy
www.prwatch.org

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work as “equals” in “unison” with politicians
to write laws to govern your life. Big
MODEL LEGISLATION
ALEC INITIATIVES
PUBLICATIONS
Business
has “a VOICE TASK
and aFORCES
VOTE,” according
to newly exposed
documents. DO YOU?

Model Legislation

Public Safety and Elections

Resolution in Support of the USA PATRIOT Act

Did you know the
NRA--the National
Rifle Association-was the corporate
co-chair in 2011?

WHEREAS, on September 11, 2001, acts of treacherous violence were committed
against the United States and its citizens by foreign terrorists; and

WHEREAS, these cowardly acts rendered it both necessary and appropriate that the

United States exercise its rights to self-defense and to protect United States citizens both
at home and abroad; and

WHEREAS, terrorism poses a fundamental threat to the ordered liberty that is the
essence of our constitutional democracy; and

WHEREAS, as a key part of our nation's response to these acts, Congress spent six

weeks negotiating and debating law enforcement tools that both protect civil liberties
while also helping detect, disrupt and prevent terrorism; and

WHEREAS, the Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act (PL 107-56) on October 25, 2001
with wide, bipartisan margin (Senate 98-1, and House of Representatives 357-66), and
President George W. Bush signed the Act into law the following day; and

WHEREAS, the USA PATRIOT Act has strengthened the nation's criminal laws against
terrorism; and

ALEC’s’Corporate Board
--in recent past or present

• AT&T Services, Inc.
• centerpoint360
• UPS
• Bayer Corporation
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Energy Future Holdings
• Johnson & Johnson
• Coca-Cola Company
• PhRMA
• Kraft Foods, Inc.
• Coca-Cola Co.
• Pfizer Inc.
• Reed Elsevier, Inc.
• DIAGEO
• Peabody Energy
• Intuit, Inc.
• Koch Industries, Inc.
• ExxonMobil
• Verizon
• Reynolds American Inc.
• Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
• Salt River Project
• Altria Client Services, Inc.
• American Bail Coalition
• State Farm Insurance
For more on these corporations,
search at www.SourceWatch.org.

WHEREAS, the USA PATRIOT Act has enhanced the capacity of law enforcement to
gather and analyze intelligence on terrorist activity; and

WHEREAS, the USA PATRIOT Act has helped law enforcement defend against the
sophisticated tactics used by modern terrorists by updating the law to reflect new
technologies and new threats; and

WHEREAS, the USA PATRIOT Act has accomplished these goals without altering the

tangible legal protections that exist to preserve the privacy of law-abiding citizens; and

WHEREAS, the Congress, in performing its constitutional role of oversight, found no
instance of any abuses of the USA PATRIOT Act and in fact has praised the Justice
Department for its efforts to fight terrorism and defend the lives and liberties of the
American people; and

WHEREAS, the security provided by the USA PATRIOT Act has been a necessary and
Constitutionally-appropriate means to the greater end of liberty;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that (insert state) supports the President of the

United States and Congress in their work to defend the homeland against further terrorist
attacks; and

!

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that (insert state) earnestly and resolutely supports the
USA PATRIOT Act as necessary and vital to the preservation of American civil liberties in a
way that is respectful of the legal and constitutional safeguards of those liberties; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this Resolution be forwarded to the

President of the United States, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, and the Governor of the State of (state name).

Adopted by ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force at the Annual Meeting July 29, 2004.
Approved by full ALEC Board of Directors August, 2004.

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Center for Media
and Democracy's
quick analysis:
This 2004 Resolution parrots the talking points of the Bush Administration in its effort to support the Patriot Act. The claim that Americans' privacy
protections were not altered is false on its face: Sections 213 and 215 of the Patriot Act, as well as the expanded National Security Letter powers
(untethered from any requirement of individualized suspicion of wrongdoing before a person's financial records and internet transactions could be
obtained unilaterally by the FBI), significantly expanded the power of the federal government to pry into Americans' privacy. It expanded the power of
the federal government to conduct secret searches of Americans' homes and of the FBI to obtain access to "any tangible thing" about a person without
probable cause of wrongdoing. It also allowed the FBI to demand Americans' financial and bank records, internet transactions, phone records and more
without judicial approval and without probable cause of wrongdoing. Note that this resolution was passed in 2004, the same year President George W.
Bush was running for reelection.