Investigation finds special interests wrote at least 10,000 bills introduced in state legislatures over past eight years

'Model bills' introduced, broken down by type of special interest;
Mississippi had the most (USA Today/Arizona Republic graphic)

A two-year investigation by USA Today, its Gannett Co. sister paper The Arizona Republic, and the Center for Public Integrity reveals the extent to which state legislators introduce bills written by special interests such as corporations, trade groups and think tanks.

"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. "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," O'Dell and Penzenstadler report. "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."

The report includes an interactive chart of "model bills" by state and type of interest from 2010 to 2018. Mississippi had the most, with 744 such bills introduced during that time period.