Press Releases

Today, Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-02) announced the introduction of H.R. 4671, The Small Business Protection Act. The goal of this legislation is to end UNICOR’s government monopoly and force them to compete with the private sector.

Currently, UNICOR, also known as Federal Prison Industries, automatically gets its choice of federal government contracts through a process known as mandatory sourcing. This provision prevents private sector businesses from even competing for a federal government contract. On top of this UNICOR also possesses special status to poach contracts specifically reserved for small businesses despite being a massive government-run entity that maintains a “workforce” of over 12,000 prisoners.

“Small business job growth is critical to developing and maintaining a healthy economy,” said Congressman Huizenga. “UNICOR, which is owned and operated by the federal government, actively undermines the free market. The federal government does not belong in the manufacturing or services industries when there are private sector options available and law-abiding citizens are looking for work.”

Specifically, H.R. 4671 does four things:

Enhances free market competition by eliminating UNICOR’s mandatory sourcing provision  Promotes small business job growth by preventing UNICOR from bidding on small business contracts Protects sensitive and personal information from being handled by criminals Requires a study on the effectiveness of UNICOR’s impact on recidivism

Across the country, UNICOR operates 81 facilities including one in Milan, Michigan.

Click here to read this commonsense three page bill.