Mark Souder: “I think many Americans who are watching this and our colleagues and staffers around the Hill are going, this absolutely…”

“I think many Americans who are watching this and our colleagues and staffers around the Hill are going, this absolutely does not make sense. If they have not listened to this debate before, it is like, how could this be happening? About the only people who could possibly defend this would be somebody in prison; but we are not saying they are not going to have a job or income, because you and I have both advocated for many years that, and have been personally interested in how you deal and rehabilitate people in prisons and give them job skills. That is not what this is about. So who could possibly be blocking this? What is the problem? It makes no sense. It is one of these things that you hear the Federal Government does and you think, well, how does this keep happening? Is it the dollars that are generated by some benefit to employees in Federal Prison Industries who are contracted to supervise the prisoners? Is it the amount of money that has been given to different agencies? Is it inertia, that government will not do it? It is not a defensible policy. No one likes to stand up and defend this. And when they do, quite frankly, the few times we have ever had any kind of debate, the debate has not been anchored to reality.”