[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 34 (Wednesday, February 28, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S2362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. LEVIN (for himself, Mr. Thomas, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. 
        Grassley, and Mr. Harkin):
  S. 705. A bill to amend the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act 
to establish a governmentwide policy requiring competition in certain 
executive agency procurements, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join with Senators Craig 
Thomas, Debbie Stabenow, Chuck Grassley and Tom Harkin in introducing 
the Federal Prison Industries Competition in Contracting Act. Our bill 
is based on a straightforward premise: it is unfair for Federal Prison 
Industries to deny businesses in the private sector an opportunity to 
compete for sales to their own government.
  We have made immeasurable progress on this issue since I first 
introduced a similar bill ten years ago. It may seem incredible, but at 
that time, Federal Prison Industries (FPI) could bar private sector 
companies from competing for a Federal contract. Under the law 
establishing Federal Prison Industries, if Federal Prison Industries 
said that it wanted a contract, it would get that contract, regardless 
whether a company in the private sector could provide the product 
better, cheaper, or faster.
  Six years ago, the Senate took a giant step toward addressing this 
inequity when we voted 74-24 to end Federal Prison Industries' monopoly 
on Department of Defense contracts. Not only was that provision enacted 
into law, we were able to strengthen it with a second provision a year 
later. In 2004, we took another important step, enacting an 
appropriations provision which extends the DOD rules to other Federal 
agencies. This means that, for the first time, private sector companies 
should be able to compete against for contracts awarded by all Federal 
agencies.
  Despite this progress, work remains to be done. We have heard reports 
from Federal procurement officials and from small businesses that FPI 
continues to claim that it retains the mandatory source status that 
protected it from competition for so long. This kind of misleading 
statement may undermine the right to compete that we have fought so 
hard for so long to establish.
  In addition, FPI continues to sell its services into interstate 
commerce on an unlimited basis. I am concerned that the sale of prison 
labor into commerce could have the effect of undermining companies and 
work forces that are already in a weakened position as a result of 
foreign competition. We have long taken the position as a Nation that 
prison-made goods should not be sold into commerce, where prison wages 
of a few cents per hour could too easily undercut private sector 
competition. It is hard for me to understand why the sale of services 
should be treated any differently than the sale of products.
  The bill that we are introducing today would address these issues by 
making it absolutely clear that FPI no longer has a mandatory source 
status, by reaffirming the critical requirement that FPI must compete 
for its contracts, and by carefully limiting the circumstances under 
which prison services may be sold into the private sector economy.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues on these important 
issues.
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