Federal Prison Industries Reform Act of 2001

This bill proposed significant changes to how Federal Prison Industries (FPI)—a government-owned corporation that uses inmate labor—operates and sells products to the federal government. It aimed to shift the program toward a more competitive model by easing "mandatory source" rules, which generally require federal agencies to buy certain products from prison workshops rather than private businesses.

For the average citizen, the bill’s primary impact would have been on the private sector and the federal budget. By allowing private companies to compete more effectively for government contracts, the bill sought to protect small businesses from being undercut by low-cost prison labor while potentially lowering costs for taxpayers through competitive bidding. Additionally, the bill proposed new pilot programs to test whether prison labor could be used to manufacture goods that would otherwise be produced by foreign workers, aiming to bring those production jobs back to U.S. soil.