Right-Wing Bill Mill Meeting Centers Voter Suppression, Protecting Data Centers

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) faithful descend on the Sunshine State this week for the right-wing bill mill’s annual meeting at the four-star JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes. In addition to smoking stogies at a “late night cigar reception,” sipping drinks, and trying out Meta’s latest “AI-powered wearable technologies,” attendees are considering model policies designed to suppress the vote, shield fossil fuel companies from liability, protect data centers, advance MAGA priorities, and more.

Speakers listed on this year’s program include Susie Wiles, President Trump’s chief of staff; Dr. Oz, administrator of the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; Governor Kevin Stitt (R–OK), and others. This is the full list of speakers obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).

ALEC is a pay-to-play operation that brings together state legislators, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing operatives behind closed doors to write model legislation to advance a radical right-wing, pro-corporate, and pro-Republican agenda on everything from gerrymandering and purported election fraud to crushing unions, undermining public education, and rewriting the Constitution.

The top “presidential” sponsors of this week’s meeting are the anti-woke capitalism group Consumers’ Research; Leonard Leo’s voter suppression group Honest Elections Project; the Florida State Policy Network affiliate James Madison Institute; the multinational bank JPMorgan Chase; Big Tech’s trade association NetChoice; and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

ALEC’s largest identifiable funder is the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation, which funneled $3.6 million into its coffers between 2019 and 2024, as CMD reported last year. Some of these funds were used to bankroll ALEC CARE, the group’s controversial voter management campaign software.

Election Operations and Voter Suppression

Over the next few days, ALEC meeting attendees will once again consider a number of model policies designed to disrupt the election process across the country and suppress the vote nationwide.

These bills were introduced in the Process and Procedures Task Force chaired by Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project, who is also listed as a speaker. The dark money group, which is registered as an alternative name under Leo’s 85 Fund, has been holding trainings and “state leadership dinners” on the sidelines of ALEC meetings since July 2021.

Other voter suppression and election denial activists speaking at the meeting include: Charles Faltenovich, PA Fair Elections (who was among the election deniers invited to the White House last week prior to Trump’s prime time address about the 2020 election); Kathy Harms and Cleta Mitchell, Election Integrity Network; Don Palmer, Heritage Foundation; and Hans Von Spakovsky, Advancing American Freedom.

The Eligibility Verification and Documentary Proof of Citizenship for Registration Requirements Act places a number of requirements on a state’s chief election official to confirm the citizenship of voters, including utilizing the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program with the office of United States Citizenship and Immigration Service. The model also mandates that state-issued driver’s licenses and I.D. cards indicate each person’s citizenship.

A 2024 study undertaken by the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, VoteRiders, the Brennan Center, and Public Wise found that 21 million Americans do not have a driver’s license, and 2.6 million Americans have no form of government-issued ID. A proof of citizenship requirement would also disproportionately disenfranchise senior citizens and the majority of married women who have adopted their husband’s last name.

The model also requires that “Every state agency that provides public funds, scholarship, or other public funded benefits to noncitizens shall report the name, address, and all other identifying information in their possession for each noncitizen recipient on a quarterly basis to the chief election official and state election office.”

Another model up for debate this week is the Period for Early Voting in Person Act. This would limit early voting at the polls to a maximum of seven days, which would greatly reduce voting opportunities. Currently, the average early voting period in the 47 states that offer it is 20 days, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Unsolicited Pre-Populated Absentee Application Prohibition Act would further restrict the absentee voting process by preventing third parties from mailing absentee ballot applications to voters with their voter information already filled out .

The model Resolution Calling for an Active Defense of the Electoral College in Opposition to the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact takes aim at the national effort to commit participating states’ electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationally. Eighteen states and DC have joined the compact, accounting for 222 of the 270 electoral votes needed to activate the plan.

ALEC is also considering policies that would make it much harder for voters to exercise direct democracy. The Statement of Principles on Initiatives and Referenda supports making the proponents of voter initiatives foot the bill for the state’s cost of putting the measure on the ballot, limiting those who circulate petitions to in-state registered voters, and requiring voters who sign any petitions to provide ID numbers and come from “geographically dispersed jurisdictions.” The proposed principles also endorse imposing a single-subject rule for all initiatives and referenda, prohibiting financial support from any group that gets funding from abroad, and requiring supermajority support for passage.

Apparently legislators who refer referenda to the ballot would not have to pay the costs or meet many of the same requirements as citizens who aren’t politicians.

This week ALEC lawmakers are also attending workshops focused on election-related topics, with titles like “Securing the Vote: Critical Election Reforms for States in 2027” or “How California Destroyed Its Elections: How to Protect Your State from California-style Elections.”

Data Centers and AI

With massive “hyperscale” data centers and AI attracting ever increasing scrutiny from Americans and policymakers, and sparking strong opposition across the political spectrum, it’s no surprise that ALEC members plan to debate AI-related model policies this week.

One of the most concerning is the Critical Infrastructure Security Act, which would expand ALEC’s 2018 Critical Infrastructure Protection Act to include enhanced penalties for trespassing at data centers and “government facilities” with the intent of damaging property, inflicting bodily harm, “surveillance of nonpublic security measures,” or “another felony.”

The reference to government facilities is most likely aimed at protests at Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) offices and detention centers. Given that the Department of Homeland Security has labeled filming ICE operations as “violence” and made unfounded criminal charges against hundreds of people, the proposed legislation could be used by states to further chill the First Amendment right to protest.

Higher-class felonies could be charged if the infractions are “committed … in material coordination with” a “foreign terrorist organization” or “other hostile foreign actor.” The model bill doesn’t define those terms so it’s unclear how they would be applied. The measure also adds sections on organization liability for “conspiring” to support or “facilitating” illegal conduct, “technological interference,” theft of information, or the use of drones at critical infrastructure sites.

Another model under consideration, the Digital Infrastructure & Ratepayer and Resource Protection Accord takes a policy position against all data center bans and moratoriums, and provides data centers with the “clear authority to secure power — by generating it on-site, contracting for dedicated supply, or integrating co-located systems such as small modular reactors, advanced geothermal, and microgrids — subject only to objective safety and interconnection standards.”

At ALEC’s December 2025 meeting, members passed an Act to Allow for Consumer Regulated Electric Utilities to create a system for private grid development that would exist outside of the regulatory purview of public utilities. This would allow for small modular reactors (SMRs) to be built to serve data centers and AI customers, as CMD first reported.

These bills may also be discussed in the workshop “Lights On, Innovation On: How State Energy Policy Will Decide America’s AI Future.”

The Artificial Intelligence Mental Health Transparency and Accountability Act responds to growing concerns about the use of AI chatbots in mental health care by providing a liability shield to AI developers unless they act with “gross negligence or willful or wanton disregard for user safety based on industry best practices.”

Another model policy, the Clinical AI Services Act, provides a broad framework for the use of AI in patient care, or “reasonably used to perform patient-specific clinical functions that would constitute the practice of medicine or other licensed clinical practice if performed by a licensed health care provider.”

If ALEC lawmakers are itching for more AI engagement at the conference, they can “meet with Meta’s policy team” at its Innovation Hospitality Suite and “explore innovations such as the Meta Ray-Ban Display and Neural Band — the first AI glasses featuring a private in-lens display and on-wrist control.”

Blocking Actions to Address the Climate Emergency

In addition to creating conditions for the highly polluting and resource-intensive data center industry to thrive, ALEC attendees are considering other bills that will hinder efforts to reverse the unfolding climate emergency.

The most alarming is The Energy Producers and Consumers Protection Act, which would give the fossil fuel industry (or any greenhouse gas-emitting company) a complete liability shield for any and all climate-change related damages. The proposed policy would “establish[] comprehensive protections against climate change liability litigation, including civil lawsuits, nuisance claims, climate superfund actions, and related criminal proceedings, brought against individuals, businesses, and industries in connection with their lawful greenhouse gas emissions.” If passed, this would prevent citizens from filing lawsuits seeking damages from companies that knowingly harmed or endangered the earth’s climate for monetary gain, and also make illegal emerging state climate superfund “efforts to shift the costs and damages associated with extreme weather and adaptation from government and taxpayers to individual companies based on their greenhouse gas emissions.”

The Energy Security and Independence Act would offer big polluters a civil liability shield as well.

These two bills will likely be promoted in the workshop “Stopping China and the Left from Using Our Courts to Impose the Green Agenda,” which includes a description claiming that the US legal system has “become ground zero for Left’s fight to impose their ESG agenda. And now China is all in on influencing the way courts make decisions.”

If these two model bills don’t provide enough cover for big polluters, The Local Government Net Zero Policy Prohibition Act preempts any local government entity — including public schools and universities — from “adopting, funding, or enforcing net zero greenhouse gas emission policies.” Any entity that ignores this state policy could lose state funding or face a lawsuit from the attorney general, among other possible penalties.

The sweeping measure would ban any policy designed to reduce a government entity’s carbon footprint, including procurement preferences, cap-and-trade agreements, carbon offsets, divestment, or participation in any organization or association that advances the goal of net-zero emissions.

Another model, the PFAS Model Policy Act addresses the environmental crisis around the cancer-causing “forever chemicals” by prohibiting the sale of consumer products that contain them — such as cookware, cleaning products, and clothing. But the proposed bill includes such a lengthy list of exemptions that it would actually make it difficult to keep these chemicals out of the supply chain, much less rid the environment of them.

Finally, the Waters of the State Act under debate this week would require state regulations of public waters to conform with the Supreme Court’s extremely limited interpretation of the Clean Water Act in Sackett v. EPA. Any state regulations to further protect wetlands would lose agency deference if challenged in court, and property owners would be entitled to attorney fees against the state if they prevailed.

Education Policies to Further Privatization and MAGA Priorities

ALEC has long pushed model policies that further the goal of privatizing America’s public education system. This week’s meeting offers more in that vein.

The 529 Education Freedom for States Act, which appears to have originated at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, would allow for parents to use 529 accounts established to save for post-secondary education for K–12 tuition at private and religious schools.

Another bill circulated this week, the Educational Facilities Freedom Act, would prohibit localities from preventing the sale or rental of old school buildings to private or charter schools.

As part of their anti-woke agenda for schools and school curricula, ALEC meeting attendees will debate the Religious Literature and Its Impact Act and The Informed American Patriotism Act. The first bill requires public schools to teach “Religious literature, including the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and New Testament, and its impact on history and literature.” The second is drafted to promote patriotism through a “civics literacy module,” while simultaneously requiring that discussions in the module be “conducted in a viewpoint-neutral manner.”

In an attack on academic freedom in education, the Foreign Influence Operations Out of American Education Act would restrict publicly funded education centers — including universities — from receiving funds or engaging in partnerships with foreign countries “listed on 15 CFR 791.4 (Determination of foreign adversaries) by U.S. Department of Commerce.”

ALEC will also hold a workshop entitled, “Are You Funding the CCP? Exposing Chinese Communist Party Infiltration into Your Universities.” The session promises to “uncover how the CCP has gained a foothold in higher education, what it means for national security and economic competitiveness, and how states can help safeguard American innovation before it’s too late.”

Nullifying and Limiting Court Decisions

ALEC lawmakers are considering two model bills at the meeting that provide legal avenues for states to nullify court decisions. The Act Clarifying State Constitutional Authority creates a process for allowing state legislatures to review and nullify federal court decisions that they deem to be constitutionally invalid or outside of a court’s geographic jurisdiction.

The Constitutional Authority Clarification Act would largely strip courts of their authority to interpret state constitutions and hand much of that power over to state legislatures. It would limit court decisions to the parties involved unless the legislature takes action and require a “heightened concurrence” of Supreme Court justices to strike down a state law or regulation. This bill also allows judicial decisions to be overridden by a joint resolution from the legislature and a signature from the governor.

Both of these model bills would severely limit the power and scope of state courts and expand the power of the legislature.

Other New Model Policies Under Consideration This Week: