Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contrating Act of 2006
FEDERAL PRISON INDUSTRIES COMPETITION IN CONTRACTING ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 14, 2006)
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Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the committee for yielding time.
I rise in opposition to this bill. Now, I represent two prisons in my district, and grandma used to say that idle hands are the devil's workshop. We have to find ways to keep these people busy; but, more importantly, we have to give them real job skills.
Now, I understand that in some cases this may be taking jobs away from the private sector, but that is very rare, Members. Mostly what we are doing in those prisons today are jobs that either aren't done in the United States much any more, or they are jobs that nobody wants. And we need to keep these guys busy. We need to give them some job skills. And I am afraid we are going to throw this baby out with the bath water today.
Now, it may well be that we have to reform the Federal Prison Industries a bit. And I hear the talk about, well, we can find $75 million for job training programs. Maybe that is true. But in the middle are these folks who are working in the Federal Prison Industries in my district who are earning a little bit of money, who are making a difference, and are providing products that the United States military needs.
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Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in opposition to this legislation. I represent a number of employees and inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Waseca, Minnesota, and they have a vested interest in this matter.
Federal Prison Industries employs approximately 200 inmates in Waseca. The jobs they have give these inmates real-life skills that offer opportunity for rehabilitation and a chance at success when they leave prison. The program is carefully overseen by trained prison employees.
Mr. Chairman, changes might be necessary to improve the FPI program, but I am not convinced that the legislation before us accomplishes that. H.R. 2965 would authorize a $75 million work-based training program to replace FPI. The likelihood that Congress will not appropriate these dollars threatens to make a bad situation worse. Stresses on our federal budget could lead to a worse-case scenario of having no education or job training program at all for these inmates.
Many products made by FPI are used by our armed forces, and very few of these products are made by U.S. companies who make these products. In fact, the private sector companies who procure them already make their purchases from foreign manufacturers, not U.S. companies.
Mr. Chairman, the existing FPI program works well. This is a classic case of Congress trying to fix something that is not broken. I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation and to work to improve the FPI program for inmates and small businesses alike.
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