The American Legislative Exchange Council, otherwise known by the acronym ALEC, is a non-profit 501(c) political organization established in 1973 in Chicago.
ALEC's vision statement is "A nonpartisan membership association for conservative state lawmakers who shared a common belief in limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty.
Their vision and initiative resulted in the creation of a voluntary membership association for people who believed that government closest to the people was fundamentally more effective, more just, and a better guarantor of freedom than the distant, bloated federal government in Washington, D.C."[2] ALEC keeps its membership, activities and communications confidential.
Each task force is co-chaired by one state legislator (termed "public") and one corporate representative(termed "private"), but Private Co-Chairs have veto power over final decisions of their task force.
To date, ALEC has considered, written, and approved hundreds of model bills, resolutions, and policy statements.