When you vote for your representatives, you expect them to write the laws that govern our lives. But a growing body of evidence reveals a troubling reality: many bills passed into law are written not by the people we elected, but by corporate lobbyists and special interest groups.
The Scale of the Problem
Copy-Paste Legislation Exposed
In 2019, a groundbreaking investigation called "Copy, Paste, Legislate" by the Center for Public Integrity, USA TODAY, and The Arizona Republic analyzed nearly 1 million bills introduced in state legislatures between 2010 and 2018.
Their shocking findings:
- At least 10,000 bills were almost entirely copied from model legislation
- More than 2,100 of those copycat bills became law
- In some states, fill-in-the-blank bills have supplanted writing legislation from scratch
The investigation, which won the prestigious Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, used advanced data analysis to compare millions of words across state legislatures nationwide.
ALEC: The Model Bill Factory
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is perhaps the most prominent organization producing model legislation. According to their own statistics:
- State lawmakers introduce more than 1,000 ALEC model bills every year
- Approximately one in five becomes law (about 200 bills annually)
- In 2025, ALEC unveiled over 100 new model bills
- Their membership includes about 24% of all state legislative seats
ALEC's model legislation covers everything from education to environmental regulations, often favoring corporate interests over public welfare.
Lobbyists Literally Writing the Bills
The influence goes beyond model legislation. In some cases, lobbyists write the actual bill text that becomes law.
A Blatant Example
NPR reported in 2013 that investigations by The New York Times and Mother Jones found:
"70 of the 85 lines in a House financial bill reflected Citigroup's recommendations. Two paragraphs were copied almost word for word — except lawmakers had changed two words to make them plural."
This wasn't an isolated incident. As one lobbying expert told NPR: "Lobbyists often write the actual bills — even word for word."
The Money Behind the Influence
The lobbying industry has grown into a multi-billion dollar machine that drowns out ordinary citizens:
- 12,000 active registered lobbyists in Washington D.C. — outnumbering members of Congress 20 to 1
- $3.3 billion spent on lobbying annually (on average since 2008)
- $34 spent by corporations for every $1 spent by labor unions and public-interest groups combined
This massive spending imbalance means corporate interests have far more access to lawmakers than organizations representing workers or the public interest.
Why This Matters
When special interest groups write our laws, democracy suffers in several ways:
- Accountability evaporates - Voters can't hold lawmakers accountable for bills they didn't write
- Corporate interests prevail - Laws favor profitable outcomes over public welfare
- Transparency vanishes - The public doesn't know who authored the bills affecting their lives
- Democracy becomes a facade - Elections matter less when unelected groups control policy
Pennsylvania's top sponsor of copycat legislation admitted to signing on to 72 such bills without knowing or questioning their origin. This isn't lawmaking — it's rubber-stamping.
The Solution: Direct Democracy
This is exactly why platforms like DirectGov matter. When citizens can:
- Propose their own legislation instead of waiting for special interests to act
- Analyze fiscal and equity impacts using AI and data
- Collaborate transparently with other citizens to refine ideas
- Hold representatives accountable by showing them what constituents actually want
We can begin to reclaim democracy from the special interests that have captured it.
What You Can Do
- Research your state legislators - Find out how many model bills they've introduced
- Follow the money - Check who lobbies them at OpenSecrets.org
- Demand transparency - Ask lawmakers to disclose when they introduce model legislation
- Get involved - Propose your own policies on DirectGov and show there's another way
Democracy works best when of, by, and for the people isn't just a slogan — it's reality.
Want to learn more? Check out the full Copy, Paste, Legislate investigation or explore lobbying data at OpenSecrets.