Tornado Alley (PROG)

[dbleagl]

Best quote from the article/link below, "Matheny and Ketron have said they did not read the bill before filing it, just hours before the annual deadline to introduce legislation in the General Assembly."
GOP's are introducing ALEC bills without even reading them through! That's some seriously misplaced blind faith! And where's the representation of the PEOPLE, not the corporation?!


Model bills shape state
Several were written by groups outside Tenn.

State Sen. BIll Ketron filed a bill he had not read as an anti-terrorism measure.
State Sen. BIll Ketron filed a bill he had not read as an anti-terrorism measure. / GANNETT TENNESSEE



Tennessee lawmakers have taken a stand this year opposing the federal health-care reform plan. They have suggested that followers of Islamic law threaten the state. They have offered legislation to sharply curtail the activity of labor unions.

Good ideas? Bad ideas? It’s a matter of debate.

The origins of these bills were not in Tennessee. Instead, they were authored far away by the staffs of some of the most powerful business and conservative groups in the country or by activists with national agendas.

Several of the most controversial bills debated in the legislature this year, as well as some that have slipped under the radar without much attention, were written and promoted by groups outside Tennessee, a trend some political observers say reflects an attempt to push the nation in a conservative direction using state lawmakers.

On issues ranging from online instruction in public schools to the risks presented by followers of Shariah law, legislators have worked with an untold number of lawyers and policy experts based around the country to draft bills that could reshape Tennessee.

Supporters say this practice is well established among Democrats and Republicans alike. They also say that outside advisers and groups, such as the American Legislative Exchange Council and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, bring expertise beyond the help that can be found within the legislature itself.

But critics say outsiders have come to exert too much influence over the legislature, leading lawmakers into controversies and stances that have little to do with the problems facing Tennessee.

“We’ve taken model bills in the past, but very rarely did you see model bills passed without any changes or amendments,” said state Rep. Mike Turner, the House Democratic Caucus chairman. “Some of this stuff they’re running this year is straight out of the ALEC playbook.”

Democrats have worked throughout the session to highlight the role of outside groups. In committees and on the floor, they have questioned the sponsors of controversial legislation about the origins of their bills, in an effort to undermine them by exposing connections to out-of-state groups.

Republicans have not attempted to disguise how their bills have come into being. But even as they acknowledge outside help, they describe their measures as solutions tailored to the state.

“We’re a citizen legislature. We’re not experts on everything,” said state Rep. Debra Maggart, the Republican Caucus chairman. “I do think it’s important for the public to understand that we do not have a huge staff down here, and that we do our very best to try to craft legislation that doesn’t have unintended consequences and is good for the people of our state.”
Surprising outcomes

The practice has led Tennessee lawmakers into controversy they did not foresee.

In February, Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, filed a bill called the Material Support to Designated Entities Act that took aim at organizations that follow Shariah, or Islamic law.The legislation described Shariah, a broad set of religious rules that not all Muslims adhere to in their entirety, as a “legal-political-military doctrine” that requires its followers to advocate the overthrow of the U.S. and state governments.

The measure was brought to Matheny and Ketron by the Eagle Forum, a conservative group with activists nationwide, as an anti-terrorism measure. The Eagle Forum, in turn, had received the bill from David Yerushalmi, an Arizona attorney who has long questioned the loyalty of American Muslims. (After initially denying authorship, Yerushalmi stated on his website that his law office did write the bill.)

Matheny and Ketron have said they did not read the bill before filing it, just hours before the annual deadline to introduce legislation in the General Assembly. They said they had no intention of singling out Muslims or peaceful religious practices.http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110515/NEWS/305150011/Model-bills-shape-state

But the proposal quickly drew national attention. Ketron and Matheny have since amended the bill to strip out all references to Shariah and Islam, but Muslim and civil liberties groups continue to oppose it, in part because of the bill’s origins.

Ketron has said it was a mistake to have filed language specifically targeting Islamic law.

“The first time we sat down and actually discussed it was after the article hit The Tennessean, and we both agreed it was not good to identify one specific group,” he said. "We’re citizen-legislators. … There’s no way, even if we were a full-time legislature, that I would be able to read all those bills.”
Restricting unions

Mainstream groups also help shape legislation.

Through its “Workforce Freedom Initiative,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been advocating bills at the state level that restrain the power of unions. One such measure is a bill sponsored by state Rep. Andy Holt, R-Dresden, that restricts picketing by unions.

That bill, which is pending in the House and the Senate, could come up for votes this week.

A frequent source of legislation is ALEC, a group for conservative lawmakers based in Washington, D.C. The organization has come under fire in recent months for providing the template for an immigration bill that could benefit Corrections Corporation of America, a corporate member of the organization.

The group has also led a nationwide effort to get legislatures to pass a version of its Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act. ALEC claims as one of its successes the Tennessee Health Freedom Act, which Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law last month.

Numerous bills in the Tennessee legislature in recent years have followed, or drawn some inspiration from, model legislation from ALEC.

One example is the Virtual Public Schools Act, a bill pending in the state legislature that would let districts charter schools that exist solely online. As originally written, the bill is virtually identical to a model bill offered by ALEC, as well as a measure filed two years ago in the Illinois legislature.

The language has since been amended, and its sponsor, state Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, said he was not even aware that the bill had drawn from ALEC as a source. The wording was determined by legislative staff, he said.

“I’ve been working on the concept, virtual education, for something like six or seven years,” he said. “If it’s comparable, I don’t know how or why.”
States' sovereignty

Another example is a 2009 resolution reaffirming the sovereignty of the states under the 10th Amendment, which tracked almost word for word a 1995 model resolution published by ALEC. That measure was filed by former state Rep. Susan Lynn, R-Mt. Juliet, who says she decided to run with the resolution after becoming concerned about the direction of the federal government.

“That was when all that stuff was going on with national health care, carbon trading,” she said. “I knew that the timing was exactly right.”

Democrats say the prevalence of measures that copy or borrow from ALEC’s model bills is evidence of a nationwide campaign by conservative groups to steer state legislatures.

But ALEC denies that it is trying to influence state lawmakers.

The group does not lobby, and it has a staff of only 27 people, said Raegan Weber, a spokeswoman. All of its initiatives are approved by its board of state lawmakers, and all of its approximately 840 model bills begin as measures passed by state legislatures or suggested by lawmakers.

“We obviously publish certain policies,” Weber said, “but we don’t feel it’s a negative influence because each bill has to go through the legislative process.”

Republicans in Tennessee say they see nothing wrong with working with outside groups to write legislation. When Democrats were in power, they worked with groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Conference of State Legislatures, Maggart said.

“It’s no secret that we look to other states,” she said. “All members, Democrats and Republicans, both do that. … We figure out what they did right, we figure out what they did wrong and refine it and try to make it better.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110515/NEWS/305150011/Model-bills-shape-state