"USA Today and the Republic found at least 10,000 bills almost entirely copied from model legislation were introduced nationwide in the past eight years, and more than 2,100 of those bills were signed into law, Rob O'Dell and Nick Penzenstadler report. "The investigation examined nearly 1 million bills in all 50 states and Congress using a computer algorithm developed to detect similarities in language. That search – powered by the equivalent of 150 computers that ran nonstop for months – compared known model legislation with bills introduced by lawmakers."
A separate analysis by the Center for Public Integrity found tens of thousands of "copycat" bills with frequently identical phrasing. "In all, these copycat bills amount to the nation’s largest, unreported special-interest campaign, driving agendas in every statehouse and touching nearly every area of public policy," O'Dell and Penzenstadler report.
Such lobbyist-created bills generally have deceptive titles and descriptions to disguise their true intent. For example, "the Asbestos Transparency Act didn’t help people exposed to asbestos. It was written by corporations who wanted to make it harder for victims to recoup money. The “HOPE Act,” introduced in nine states, was written by a conservative advocacy group to make it more difficult for people to get food stamps," O'Dell and Penzenstadler report.
The investigation includes a break-down of which states introduce the most model bills from 2010 to 2018, and how many of those bills are conservative, liberal, or industry-favored. Mississippi is the worst offender, with 744 such model bills introduced during that time period.
from The Rural Blog https://ift.tt/2TWjMwl Special interests secretly wrote at least 10,000 bills introduced in state legislatures over past eight years - Entrepreneur Generations
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