Maxine Waters: “it is quite unfortunate that we have a bill before us that pits the small business community or the business community…”

“it is quite unfortunate that we have a bill before us that pits the small business community or the business community against work opportunities in our prisons. It just should not have reached the floor this way. It is absolutely obvious that prisoners need to have opportunities for work and rehabilitation while they are in prison. And every Member of the Congress of the United States has stated or demonstrated one way or the other that we support business, we support small business, and we have the office of SBA and a lot of other opportunities to show our support for small business. So we should not have this kind of tension. It really should be worked out. I do not know where this bill is going, and whether or not it is going to receive the support of the Members of this House; but I know one thing, if we are to release prisoners into our community we should be releasing them with some kind of work experience. And I am sick and tired of prisoners being released with no money, no home, no rental opportunities, no health care, no anything. When they hit the street, if they do not have money for food, if they do not have money to pay rent, if they do not have a reasonable opportunity to have some time to find a job, you are going to continue to experience this recidivism that we are experiencing. And so my remarks today are a prelude to what I am going to do in an amendment.”