The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, is holding its annual meeting in Salt Lake City next week.

Lawmakers, mostly Republicans, from around the country will converge on Utah. There, they’ll meet with representatives from the private sector to discuss public policy proposals that may be implemented in statehouses around the country. Those proposals take the form of “model legislation” that serves as a template legislators can use to craft their own legislation.

Critics of ALEC say the group promotes “pro business” bills that are simply “copy and paste” proposals. A recent investigation found at least 10,000 bills copied from ALEC’s model legislation were introduced nationwide over an eight-year period, with more than 2,100 being signed into law.

Today we present an unedited, on-the-record conversation with The Salt Lake Tribune’s Editorial Board and representatives of ALEC.

George Pyle and Tim Fitzpatrick from The Tribune engage in conversation with Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, who is the national chairman of ALEC this year, Lisa Nelson, ALEC’s CEO, Bill Meierling, ALEC’s Chief Marketing Officer and Johnathan Williams, ALEC’s Chief Economist.

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