Legislator of the Week: All ALEC State Legislators

This week, the American Legislative Exchange Council celebrates 45 years of legislators coming together to collaborate, learn, and work to create a better future for their constituents. Each week ALEC recognizes a “Legislator of the Week” to honor the leaders in the states and the work they do to increase freedom, encourage open markets, and return power to the states. The “Legislator of the Week” this week is all of the ALEC State Legislators. ALEC State Legislators are leaders. They are neighbors and coworkers who, for very little pay, fight for a better life for those in Iowa, Pennsylvania, Florida, Utah and every state they call home.

For the past 45 years, ALEC has been the proving ground for state legislators and free market policies that keep our government small and increase personal freedom. ALEC brings members together from a diverse range of states, backgrounds, and parties to discuss the policy areas their constituents care about. A legislative training ground, ALEC offers a forum for collaboration and education to help leaders in the states learn from each other.

ALEC state legislators fight for economic prosperity to put their constituents’ hard earned money back in their pockets and ensure those dollars go further. They work to give parents the choice of what is best for their children and their future because, as many of them are parents themselves, they know the government does not know what is best for each individual child; the parents do. ALEC legislators lower regulations on small businesses’ to allow them to do what they do best: create jobs and products for the people of the state.

ALEC provides a forum to exchange ideas. ALEC Legislators set the agenda based on what they are faced with in the states. Empowering ALEC legislators with a leadership platform encourages collaboration in seeking policy solutions. ALEC legislators are three times more collaborative than any other legislator segment, more than Republicans, more than Democrats, more than all legislators taken as a whole. ALEC legislators are leaders in their legislatures. They represent their communities in state capitals around the country. They learn, collaborate, and find the best solutions to increase freedom and opportunity.

Legislators learn from their collaboration with other ALEC members. ALEC National Chair and North Carolina Representative Jason Saine expressed his thoughts on the benefit of his ALEC membership, “From 2011 when I first started at ALEC, the ability to discuss what worked and what hasn’t worked in other states has been so beneficial to me as a legislator.” ALEC legislators see the ability to meet, discuss, and learn from peers and colleagues in other states as invaluable. “ALEC allows legislators from across the country to connect with each other in a way that no other organization does,” stated Speaker Newt Gingrich.

ALEC Legislators share and exchange ideas to limit government and increase freedom, encourage free and open markets and return power to the states. Their work has made the last 45 years at ALEC so successful and has helped create sound polices that can be shared. As Ronald Reagan said, “It is you, the members of ALEC that should be honored for your untiring dedication and service to promoting Thomas Jefferson’s ideals.” These are the ideas of limited government, freedom markets, and federalism. As ALEC celebrates 45 years, ALEC state legislators will continue to work hard and fight for increased freedom and opportunities for all Americans for the next 45 years to come.