FedEx and ALEC Exposed



Coke, Pepsi, Kraft and McDonald's have dropped their membership with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).


Click here to tell other firms bankrolling ALEC to do the same.

FedEx

FedEx is the world's largest express transportation company, delivering some 3.3 million packages daily. It includes FedEx Freight, which hauls heavier items throughout the U.S., and FedEx Kinko's, which offers copying, printing, and graphic design services and sells office supplies, and serves as a drop-off point for customers mailing packages. [1]



Learn more⁠ about corporations VOTING to rewrite our laws.

Contents [hide]

1 Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

2 Recent Controversy

2.1 Tax Dodging

3 2010 Revenue and CEO Compensation

4 Ad boycott against Air America Radio

5 Political contributions

6 Lobbying

7 Personnel

8 Contact details

9 Resources and articles

9.1 Related Sourcewatch

9.2 References

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

FedEx lobbyist Bill Primeaux is on the Executive Committee of the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC's) Commerce, Insurance and Economic Development Task Force as of 2011.[2] [3] It was a "Vice-Chairman" level sponsor of 2011 American Legislative Exchange Council Annual Conference, which in 2010, equated to $25,000.[4] FedEx was also the sponsor of the ALEC 39th Annual Meeting Preview Reception.[5]

ALEC is not a lobby; it is not a front group. It is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, behind closed doors, corporations hand state legislators the changes to the law they desire that directly benefit their bottom line. Along with legislators, corporations have membership in ALEC. Corporations sit on all nine ALEC task forces and vote with legislators to approve “model” bills. They have their own corporate governing board which meets jointly with the legislative board. (ALEC says that corporations do not vote on the board.) They fund almost all of ALEC's operations. Participating legislators, overwhelmingly conservative Republicans, then bring those proposals home and introduce them in statehouses across the land as their own brilliant ideas and important public policy innovations—without disclosing that corporations crafted and voted on the bills. ALEC boasts that it has over 1,000 of these bills introduced by legislative members every year, with one in every five of them enacted into law. ALEC describes itself as a “unique,” “unparalleled” and “unmatched” organization. It might be right. It is as if a state legislature had been reconstituted, yet corporations had pushed the people out the door. Learn more at ALECexposed.org⁠.

Recent Controversy

Tax Dodging

For fiscal year 2010, writes the anti-austerity organization US Uncut, “When it comes to paying their fair share of taxes, FedEx simply does not deliver. When FedEx made $1.9 billion in profits, they managed to pay less than .0005% of it in taxes by using 21 tax havens. FedEx also spent 42 times (4200%) more on lobbying Congress than they did in taxes.”[6]

2010 Revenue and CEO Compensation

In 2010, FedEx had revenue of $34.734 billion, and its CEO, Frederick W. Smith, took home a paycheck of $1.19 million.[7] [8]

Ad boycott against Air America Radio

FedEx refused to advertise on the progressive Air America Radio. In October 2006, around 90 companies, including FedEx, told ABC Radio Networks that they did not want their ads to play on any radio stations that carried Air America Radio. [9] [10] [11]

Political contributions

Frederick W. Smith-- Chair, President & CEO of FedEx-- is a Bush Pioneer having raised at least $100,000 for Bush in the 2004 presidential election. [12]

FedEx gave $1,234,900 to federal candidates in the 05/06 election period through its political action committee: 34% to Democrats and 66% to Republicans. [13]

Lobbying

The company spent $3,200,000 for lobbying in 2006. In-house lobbyists as well as 13 outside lobbying firms were used, including Van Scoyoc Associates, Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, Bryan Cave Strategies, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, and Womble, Carlyle et al. [14]

Personnel

Key executives and 2007 pay: [15]

  

  

  

Options
exercised

Frederick W. Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

  

$6,170,000

  

$25,070,000

Alan B. Graf, Jr., Chief Financial Officer

  

$2,670,000

  

$5,330,000

David J. Bronczek, Chief Executive Officer of FedEx Express

  

$3,110,000

  

$6,580,000

Robert B. Carter, Chief Information Officer

  

$2,360,000

  

$2,010,000

Selected board members:[16]

James L. Barksdale, Chairman and President, Barksdale Management Corporation

August A. Busch IV, President and CEO, Anheuser-Busch

Shirley A. Jackson, President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Contact details

942 S. Shady Grove Road
Memphis, TN 38120
Phone: 901-818-7500
Fax: 901-395-2000
Web: http://www.fedex.com⁠

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch

Paul Walsh

References

↑ Profile⁠, Hoovers, accessed July 2007.

↑ Private Sector Executive Committee⁠. American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC.org. Accessed July 5, 2011.

↑ See, e.g. Massachussets Lobbying Records, Mass William W. Primeaux entry⁠, accessed July 8, 2011.

↑ [American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011 Conference Sponsors, conference brochure on file with CMD, August 11, 2011]

↑ [American Legislative Exchange Council, 2011 Conference Receptions, conference brochure on file with CMD, August 11, 2011]

↑ [ http://usuncut.org/targets/fedex⁠], “FedEx.” US Uncut. USUncut.org. Accessed July 5, 2011.

↑ Bomkamp, Samantha, “FedEx CEO's compensation slips 4 pct in 2010”⁠, Associated Press / Seattle Times, Aug. 17, 2010, accessed July 5, 2011.

↑ “United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-K – FedEx Corporation.”⁠ Securities and Exchange Commission. SEC.gov. Accessed July 5, 2011.

↑ Marc Fisher, "Air America, in the Throes of Victory?⁠", The Washington Post, December 10, 2006.

↑ "Air America on Ad Blacklist?⁠", FAIR, October 31, 2006.

↑ "Air America Blackout⁠", FAIR.org/ABC memo, October 25, 2006.

↑ Bush Pioneer Frederick W. Smith⁠, Texans for Public Justice, accessed August 2007.

↑ Federal Express Corp, 2006 PAC Summary Data⁠, Open Secrets, accessed July 2007.

↑ FedEx lobbying expenses⁠, Open Secrets.

↑ FedEx Key Executives⁠, Yahoo Finance, accessed October 2007.

↑ Board of Directors⁠, Fedex, accessed July 2007.

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