Senate Committee Backs Prison Industries Reform The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee has approved legislation that would end Federal Prison Industries’ procurement preference. The committee voted unanimously June 2 to recommend passage of S. 346, sponsored by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI), Craig Thomas (R-WY) and others. The House passed similar legislation, H.R. 1829, in November, but the Senate bill is tougher. It would end FPI’s mandatory source preference six months after it is signed into law; the House bill would phase out the preference over five years. In committee, Levin amended the bill to create new job training programs for prisoners. The House bill contains a similar provision. The Bush administration has taken no position on the legislation. The director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Harley Lappin, told a Governmental Affairs subcommittee in April that the administration supports reform of FPI as long as job training and work opportunities for prisoners can be maintained. (SAA, 4/16) Both bills would require FPI to compete for contracts on an equal basis with private industry, but they would allow FPI to be awarded a sole-source contract if the attorney general determines that the contract was essential to safety and effective administration of a particular prison. The House bill prohibits FPI from bidding on small business set-aside contracts. FPI reported sales of nearly $667 million in fiscal 2003, about 2% below the previous year. Both bills would prohibit FPI from offering services in interstate commerce. The corporation’s expansion into services, such as computer recycling and data entry, has raised new opposition among businesses. Congress earlier passed legislation requiring that, before a sole-source contract is awarded to FPI, contracting officers must conduct market research to determine whether FPI’s product is comparable in price, quality and time of delivery to a product offered by the private sector. Chris Jahn, president of the Contract Services Association, welcomed the committee’s approval of S. 346. “This bill will ensure that the rights of felons are not placed above the need for the government to get the best value for the taxpayer, and above the rights of law-abiding, hard-working citizens,” he said in a statement. In his Senate testimony, the prisons’ director, Lappin, called FPI “the Bureau of Prisons’ most important correctional management program.” About 12% of federal prisoners work for FPI, at hourly wages from about 25 cents to $1.25.