Mike Levin: “Finally, Mr. President, I want to just make reference to two examples, two Federal agencies that believe the current…”

“Finally, Mr. President, I want to just make reference to two examples, two Federal agencies that believe the current system is totally inefficient and wasteful. First, the Veterans Administration has sought the repeal of the mandatory preference on several occasions because Federal Prison Industries pricing for textiles, furniture and other products is routinely higher. The VA officials estimate that the repeal of the preference will save $18 million over a 4-year period for their agency alone, making that money available for veterans services. Mr. President, the estimate that we have received based on testimony from the deputy director of Defense Logistics in a 1996 letter to the House of Representatives is that Federal Prison Industries has a 42-percent delinquency rate. This is the deputy commander of the Defense Logistics Agency. He says that FPI has a 42-percent delinquency rate compared to a 6-percent delinquency rate for commercial industry--7 times the delinquency rate. And for that record of poor performance, Federal Prison Industries prices were an average of 13 percent higher than commercial prices.”