American Legislative Exchange Council

What is it?

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a major US lobbying organisation for big business. It is linked to big tobacco, oil, food, drink, and drug companies.

Its board of directors is made up of Republican politicians opposed to public healthcare. They also promote the ideas of those people who deny that climate change is happening. Their slogan is “limited government, free market, federalism.”

One ALEC member, John Campbell, a California congressman, said that it was “nuts” of President Barack Obama to seek to emulate the NHS through his healthcare reforms. He attacked the UK health service as “enormously inefficient, wasteful, and costly.”1

Why is it in the news?

It emerged during the recent Liam Fox and Adam Werritty scandal that ALEC funded a charity founded by the former defence secretary and run by his adviser and personal friend.

The Atlantic Bridge was set …