July, 14 2011, 01:14pm EDT

Common Cause Seeks IRS Audit of Corporate/Legislative Group
Letter cites lobbying by American Legislative Exchange Council
WASHINGTON
A group uniting corporate leaders and conservative state legislators to draft "model" legislation and turn it into state laws appears to have under-reported its lobbying activity and should be investigated for possible federal tax law violations, Common Cause said today.
In a letter to the Internal Revenue Service, the nonprofit government watchdog group said the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) may have filed false tax returns and put its tax-exempt, charitable status at risk. The council operates under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, which limits its lobbying activity and allows its corporate backers to deduct their contributions to ALEC from their taxable income.
"The American Legislative Exchange Council is the mechanism through which some of America's largest corporations are seeking to secure legislation designed to advance their bottom lines," said Common Cause President Bob Edgar. "They have every right to do so, but they appear to be evading lobbying disclosure laws and the tax breaks they're exploiting constitute a public subsidy for their profit-driven lobbying. That's not right."
Common Cause said that while ALEC has claimed in repeated IRS filings that it does no lobbying, its bylaws state that its goals include the dissemination of model legislation and the promotion of that legislation in Congress and state legislatures. ALEC's 2009 tax return, the letter added, reported an expenditure of more than $2.6 million for the work of the council's corporate/legislator task forces and an additional $1.9 million for a series of annual conferences at which bills are drafted and presented to legislators.
Based on the tax returns, ALEC publications, and correspondence exchanged by legislators and ALEC and obtained by Common Cause through freedom of information requests, "it seems incontrovertible that ALEC is substantially and indeed primarily engaged in attempting to influence legislation," the letter asserted. "All of its efforts are geared toward developing and promoting favored state legislation. These proposals are generated in a private process where the business interests of its corporate members are highlighted, then shared only with the organization's legislator members so they can take the proposals back to their states and introduce them as their own idea."
The Common Cause letter, submitted on the organization's behalf by Washington lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley of the firm of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg and Eisenberg, comes one day after release of a massive collection of ALEC-drafted and endorsed legislation obtained by the Wisconsin-based Center for Media and Democracy. The more than 800 bills and resolutions in the collection include proposals to disenfranchise thousands of voters, privatize public schools, and protect tobacco and pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits stemming from the use of their products.
"By claiming to be a charity and calling participating legislators `members,' ALEC attempts to evade disclosure of its lobbying, allows corporate members to deduct their payments as charitable contributions rather than non-deductible lobbying expenses, and does an end-run around state ethics laws intended to restrict the ability of businesses to buy access to legislators in order to promote their policy agendas," the Common Cause letter said. "The IRS should stop allowing the continuation of this charade."
Common Cause is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy. We work to create open, honest, and accountable government that serves the public interest; promote equal rights, opportunity, and representation for all; and empower all people to make their voices heard in the political process.
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UAW Rejects 'Insulting' Counteroffer Put Forth By General Motors
"GM either doesn't care or isn't listening when we say we need economic justice at GM by 11:59 pm on September 14th," said UAW president Shawn Fain. "The clock is ticking."
Sep 07, 2023
The leader of the United Auto Workers on Thursday rejected General Motors' contract counteroffer as "insulting" and reminded the company that it is running out of time to avert a strike.
"After refusing to bargain in good faith for the past six weeks, only after having federal labor board charges filed against them, GM has come to the table with an insulting proposal that doesn't come close to an equitable agreement for America's autoworkers," UAW president Shawn Fain said in response to the counterproposal, which the company made public after meeting with union negotiators.
"GM either doesn't care or isn't listening when we say we need economic justice at GM by 11:59 pm on September 14th," Fain added. "The clock is ticking. Stop wasting our members' time. Tick tock."
GM's offer includes a 10% increase in wages for most employees—well short of UAW's call for a 46% wage boost.
If the UAW's proposed raise was implemented across the entire U.S. auto manufacturing sector, Bloomberg's Justin Fox noted Thursday, "it would bring real hourly wages back to... about 5% less than they were in mid-2003."
"The average hourly wage for autoworkers on the production line has dropped 30% since 2003," Fox observed.
General Motors also offered to recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday, pay out a $5,500 contract ratification bonus, and reduce the amount of time it takes for employees to reach the maximum wage rate. UAW has demanded the complete elimination of tiered compensation systems that leave newer workers with worse pay and benefits, arguing that such arrangements are aimed at dividing the rank-and-file.
Late last month, 97% of participating UAW members voted to authorize a strike if the "Big Three" automakers—General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis—don't agree to a fair contract by September 14, when the union's current contracts with the companies are set to expire.
The union has since filed unfair labor practice charges against GM and Stellantis, accusing the companies of illegally refusing to bargain in good faith.
Ford made its counteroffer to the UAW last week, proposing a 9% wage increase. Fain said the company's offer "insults our very worth."
Stellantis, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, is expected to put forth its counteroffer to the UAW before the end of the week.
As Luis Feliz Leon wrote in The American Prospect on Thursday, Stellantis is using its U.S. plants as "bargaining chips" in high-stakes negotiations with the union.
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One worker told Leon that Stellantis is "dangling that they can reopen the Belvidere plant if we give up this or that."
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Amid a worsening climate emergency and preparations for a pair of United Nations summits to tackle it, an analysis released Wednesday called out multiple countries including the United States for continuing to dump a collective $4.4 billion into fossil fuel projects abroad after pledging to stop such public financing by the end of last year.
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Germany also has an approved project in Bangladesh and pending projects in Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Iraq, and Uzbekistan. Japan has approved projects in India, Indonesia, and Uzbekistan, and pending projects in Brazil, Jamaica, and Russia. Italy has approved projects in Indonesia, Peru, and Uzbekistan and pending projects in Brazil, Mozambique, Turkey, and Vietnam.
"Enough is Enough! No more sacrifice zones, no more fossil fuels—we refuse to be sacrificed!"
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OCI public finance analyst Claire O'Manique declared Wednesday that "the U.S., Italy, and Germany are going rogue by backtracking on their commitment to end international public finance for fossil fuels. Public money that should be going to support a just transition to renewable energy is instead being pumped into more climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects, harming communities."
"Other countries have kept their promise to end international public finance for fossil fuels," she stressed. "This is already shifting billions of dollars towards clean energy. There needs to be accountability for signatories who go back on their word."
Frontline community leaders also spoke out. Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights executive director Peter Bosip said: "The people of Papua New Guinea are already facing the full force of climate change. Rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and environmental degradation are already threatening many people's existence and threatening our way of life. Papua LNG will add to and exacerbate this climate crisis—and financiers cannot, and should not, finance it."
Anabela Lemos, director of Justiça Ambiental in Mozambique, charged that "rich countries are addicted to fossil fuels" and emphasized the importance of fighting against oil and gas projects.
"If there isn't a strong backlash, the rest [of the world] will follow soon and then there will be no chance for vulnerable countries like Mozambique to deal with the ravages of the climate crisis," Lemos warned. "Instead of supporting Mozambique to develop clean and just energy sources, these countries are pushing Mozambique down a fossil fuel development pathway."
The campaigner took aim at the Italian export credit finance agency, Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (SACE), for its involvement in "the gas rush in northern Mozambique, which has led to human rights abuses, devastated lives, increased conflict and militarization, and oppression of communities, journalists, and civil society."
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The Green Wave—named for the green bandannas worn by advocates who have assembled at huge reproductive rights rallies—saw a major success in Argentina in 2020 when the Senate passed a law legalizing abortion. Colombia's Supreme Court also decriminalized abortion care in 2022, and green wave protests have taken place in countries such as Chile and Peru, where public outcry last month pushed the government to allow an 11-year-old girl to access an abortion after she was raped by her stepfather.
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The New York Times reported Thursday that the bans in states including Texas have pushed people to seek care in neighboring states that have expanded access, with the number of abortions provided in New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado rising by more than 60% in the first six months of 2023.
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