GOP Rep. Bill Huizenga is calling for the Department of Defense to investigate Federal Prison Industries, a government-owned group that sold defective helmets to the military and then tried to cover up its misdeeds when inspectors showed up to examine prisoners’ work.
Huizenga’s request comes in response to a report released by the Department of Justice inspector general Wednesday, which found that FPI and Armor Source LLC, a contractor based in Ohio, sold defective Kevlar helmets to the Army and lightweight helmets to the Marines that suffered from ballistic failures and unauthorized manufacturing methods, among other issues.
What’s worse, FPI tried to evade defective helmet detection by selecting a few specific helmets for inspectors to look at. According to the contract, FPI was supposed to select those helmets at random. Inmates also modified documents to make it appear as though helmets passed inspection, when in fact they did not. The inmates manipulated forms at the request of FPI staff.
Despite FPI’s underhanded behavior, the Department of Justice declined to pursue criminal charges.
Huizenga doesn’t just want this issue to disappear, but rather is interested in seeing the Department of Defense conduct a full investigation into why FPI wasn’t caught red-handed sooner.
“Given the findings of this report, the Department of Defense should open an investigation into how these defective helmets were not caught sooner and review every contract associated with FPI to ensure that all safety and quality specifications are being met,” Huizenga told The Daily Caller News Foundation.”Our men and women in uniform deserve the best made in America equipment available and the assurance that it will perform when they need it most.”
“It’s bad enough that FPI continues to go after the jobs of hardworking Americans, now it has been proven they cut corners and jeopardized the lives of our men and women in uniform,” Huizenga said.
For Huizenga, FPI is a disaster, mostly because it’s a government-owned operation that relies on prison labor to take contracts that should have otherwise gone to small businesses. Huizenga has recently introduced legislation, called the Small Business Protection Act, to reform FPI and make sure the government operation has to actually compete with other private sector small businesses for contracts.
“FPI, which is owned and operated by the federal government, actively undermines the free market,” he added. “The federal government should not be using prison labor to manufacture critical lifesaving military equipment when there are private sector options available and law-abiding citizens looking for work.”
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