National Legal and Policy Center

National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) is a front group and industry funded conservative political and policy lobbying organization. NLPC was founded in 1991 by Peter Flaherty and Ken Boehm, who previously worked for "Citizens for Reagan". NLPC is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt foundation.

Overview
According to its website, NLPC "promotes ethics in public life through research, investigation, education and legal action." However, NLPC is selective. For example, though they track and critique government bailouts of companies like AIG and Citigroup, they are complicit with other forms of corporate corruption. Although NPLC targets the occasional republican, such as former Senator Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young of Alaska, it is issues they are silent on which are conspicuous. This includes the Iraq war, corporate crime, human rights abuses, executive compensation, animal welfare, environmental issues and government policies which favor and subsidize industry. NLPC targets labor unions, health care reform, environmentalism, animal rights, activists, liberal and reform oriented politicians.

Conservative watch dog
NLPC describes itself as a "conservative watch dog organization". Targets have included Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Charles Rangel and other liberal politicians. In February of 2009, NLPC focused on a rented Dominican villa which Rangel failed to disclose on his taxes, a sponsored trip to St. Martin and a "potentially illegal homestead" tax break. , According to Sen. Rangel:
 * "This is helpful because there was no questions in anybody’s minds why I had been the target of so [many] allegations. I have not wanted to use the word conspiracy — I guess it’s because I am chairman of the Ways and Means Committee that this group would want to do this."

In 2006 NPLC fueled rumors concerning the personal finances of Rep. Alan Mollohan, a democrat from West Virginia. Subsequent to an FBI investigation, he was never charged with any wrong doing. However, stories that he had benefited financially from steering money to a non-profit group, prompted his resignation from the Ethics Committee.

NLPC & McDonalds
In a May of 2006, NLPC attempted to discredit a Florida business man’s lawsuit against McDonalds' for hiring sex offenders. According to NLPC:


 * "Jody Gorran, who recently called for a boycott of McDonald's, is no stranger to liberal activism. In 2004, he brought about a lawsuit against the Atkins Diet, aided by an affiliate of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)."

The previous year, in March of 2005; lawyers for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. admitted in court that they were willing to "assume the diet was dangerous". The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has partnered with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on some issues, including a campaign to reduce animal use in toxicity testing. See also animal testing, section 3 on product (toxicity) testing.

According to NLPC:


 * "Gorran's beef with McDonald's is clearly part of radical anti-meat agenda".

PETA has long campaigned against McDonald's lack of animal welfare standards, which violate even minimal government standards. After two years of frustrating discussions, PETA launched its international "McCruelty to go" campaign.
 * "Federal standards require that 100 percent of cows be fully stunned before they are skinned, but (according to) a McDonald’s training video ...it’s acceptable if five cows in every 100 are conscious while skinned and dismembered." See also McDonalds, section 9.

Much of NLPC's "documentation", comes from notable restaurant, alcohol, tobacco, and general industry front group, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF). See also A Visit to the ActivistCash.Com Web Site.

Walmart’s environmental incentives vs stock holder advocacy
Walmart's treatment of workers includes substandard wages and benefits as well as child labor and immigration violations and shady anti-union activities. From 2000 to 2005, the National Labor Relations Board found Wal-Mart guilty of 15 cases of illegal conduct. See also Walmart, section 2. However, according to NPLC, their "environmental incentives" are the real problem and shareholders are the victims. In a public letter to WalMart CEO H. Lee Scott, NLPC president Peter Flaherty criticizes Walmart’s "failed environmental incentives" and "scientifically unproven global warming":


 * "These disappointing numbers raise serious concerns about your assertions to shareholders that Wal-Mart’s sustainability campaign is good for the company by improving its reputation and marketing more environmentally-friendly products. The sustainability campaign, now more than two years old, has clearly not achieved these objectives. Wal-Mart is still plagued by lackluster sales growth and disappointing stock performance. Yet, the company’s competitors continue to outperform it. Target Corp. and Costco Wholesale Corp. reported same-store sales gains of 4.1 and 9 percent respectively. Rather than reassess the merits of your ill-advised effort to reach out to environmental activists, you persist in pushing their agenda. On November 1, Wal-Mart announced it was partnering with the Climate Change Initiative to combat the scientifically unproven threat of man-made global warming. As a shareholder, it is disturbing enough that Wal-Mart is wasting $500 million annually to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to address a threat that many scientists say is non-existent."

Labor unions & gold plated benefits
According to NLPC, it is not overcompensated and inept CEO's, but labor unions whose "demands were responsible for so much of the losses" by General Motors and Chrysler auto companies. House Speaker Newt Gingrich "lays out the case against unions" and its association with the democratic party. According to NLPC:


 * "The United Auto Workers Union (UAW), like most unions, operates as an adjunct to the Democratic Party. During 2000-08, the union gave more than $23.6 million to the party and its candidates. That compares to the $193,540 it gave to the Republicans."

The obvious question being why there are any donations at all to a party which has dedicated so many resources to marginalizing and discrediting unions. The NLPC concedes that "UAW did make wage and benefit concessions." However, "those concessions have to be put in context". For example, a paid Easter Monday holiday and overtime pay for less than 40 hours a week. "Though the union traded away certain health benefits, its package is still more generous than what most households get." Considering that almost 47 million Americans lack any health care coverage and millions more have partial and inadequate coverage, this is probably an accurate statement. According to NLPC the UAW will be unable to "resist the temptation to reshape the company in ways friendly to its interests" (as in the unthinkable idea of workers having some input into their companies.) According to a quote from Newt Gingrich:


 * "Does anyone seriously believe that (President Obama) would accept an arrangement in which GM becomes profitable at the expense of the union and its gold-plated benefits?"

Executive compensation vs. labor wages & benefits
According to figures from the United Auto Workers Union for 2007, CEOs of Chrysler Group, Ford and General Motors earned a combined total of $24.5 million in salaries, bonuses and other compensation in 2006. The next four highest paid executives received average salary and other compensation of $1.3 million at Ford and $1.4 million at General Motors. Substantial salaries do not even include stock holdings and options in their executive compensation packages.

In addition to regular hourly pay, the labor cost figures cited by the companies include over time, shift premiums, holidays, vacations, health care, pensions, education and training programs. They also figure in costs which employers are legally responsible for; such as Social Security, Medicare, state workers' compensation and unemployment insurance. Also often cited in the highest figures are benefits to retirees no longer on company payrolls.

NLPC & Fox News
NLPC president Peter Flaherty is a frequent guest on Fox News.

Funding
NLPC’s predominate sources of funding are the Scaife Foundations.

The man behind the curtain
Richard Mellon Scaife is heir to the Mellon banking, oil and aluminum fortune. He is the premier financier for right wing political and policy organizations in the United States. The Mellon family owns Gulf Oil. See also Scaife Foundations.

Although Mr. Scaife is the owner of Pittsburgh's second largest newspaper, the Tribune-Review; he made his mark financing Republican politics and organizations. Ronald Reagan appointed many veterans of Scaife funded think tanks to his administration. According to Newt Gingrich, Scaife's money laid the basis for modern conservatism. Critics have referred to Scaife as "spoiled, vindictive and narrow minded." Former employee Pat Minarcin edited a magazine for Scaife in Pittsburgh, but resigned after he presented the magazine with a list of people he wanted to attack. Scaife operates in extreme secrecy from the 39th floor of his Pittsburgh office tower and does not grant interviews or allow cameras. According to a former White House counsel:


 * "I think it's the mystery, the man behind the scenes pulling the strings and that's the scene we all remember at the end of the Wizard of Oz.

Personnel

 * Ken Boehm, Chairman
 * Peter Flaherty, President
 * Dr. Carl Horowitz, Director Organized Labor Accountability Project, editor of Union Corruption Update
 * John Carlisle, Director of Policy, editor of Legal Services Monitor

Contact
National Legal and Policy Center 107 Park Washington Court Falls Church, Virginia 22046 Tel: (703) 237-1970 Fax: (703) 237-2090

Website: http://www.nlpc.org/

Sourcewatch articles

 * Astroturf
 * Climate change skeptics
 * Conservatives target the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
 * Criminalising civil disobedience
 * Intimidating democracy
 * Intimidating public interest groups
 * Richard Mellon Scaife
 * Scaife Foundations