Air Force jacket manufacturer possibly closing up shop...

[Brad]

Found this article today:

http://tinyurl.com/8xecgbv

Ky. Firm Fears Closing if Government Contract Shifts to Prisoners

By James R. Carroll for The Courier-Journal

Washington, DC -- A Kentucky company that sells the Air Force as many as 70,000 jackets a year -- including the ones presidents wear -- said Thursday that it will be put out of business if the federal government adopts a plan to give the work to federal prisoners.

Ashland Sales and Service employs 100 people to make the Air Force jackets under a five-year, $20 million contract.

Every member of the Air Force gets one of the jackets, and presidents, including Barack Obama, have worn them while flying aboard Air Force One.

"It's not a done deal yet," said Ashland Sales President Michael Mansh, who is enlisting help from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to persuade the Defense Department to reverse course.

But if the government proceeds as planned, the 50-year-old company would fold, Mansh said in an interview.

McConnell issued a statement saying he was "stunned" to learn of the company's plight.

"There are plenty of things prisoners can do to improve our communities that don't involve putting a company that has made Air Force jackets for the past 50 years out of business," the senator said.

The Defense Logistics Agency said that after it put out solicitations for a new contract last October, it received a notice that Federal Prison Industries, a self-funded government corporation that provides jobs and training to federal inmates, was interested in the work.

"No decision to move the current contract has been made," said Mimi Schirmacher, spokeswoman for the logistics agency at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Under federal law, the agency must determine through market research -- which is under way -- whether a prison-made item is comparable to products from the private sector, Schirmacher said.

Congress requires the government to buy from Federal Prison Industries if a product its inmates make is comparable to products made by private companies, she said. If the federal inmates do not make a comparable product, the law requires that Federal Prison Industries be allowed to compete with companies for the business, according to Schirmacher.

Mansh, who said his company is the largest employer in Olive Hill, Ky., has been battling to keep his government contracts since 1998, when the Pentagon took away a previous jacket contract, he said.

"We actually replaced it with this jacket, and now they want to take away this one," Mansh said.

In 2009, Ashland formally protested the Defense Department's decision to give a non-competitive contract to Federal Prison Industries to produce short- and long-sleeve Army shirts. Ashland said the shirts should have been open to competition, but the Government Accountability Office rejected the company's protest.

The GAO is the nonpartisan auditing arm of Congress, but it also reviews industry protests over government contracts.

Earlier Thursday, Mansh appeared on Fox News and invited Obama "to come to Olive Hill and visit the plant and meet with our workers and get an idea of what it takes to produce his jackets."

He said in the Fox interview that "this has nothing to do with cutbacks (in the Defense Department). This is just that (the) federal prison industry needs additional work, and they're choosing to take it away from my workers."

[spacecommand]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/story/2012-02-17/air-force-jacket-contract-prisoners/53131714/1

WASHINGTON – The federal government is ending any plans to give a contract for Air Force jackets to federal prisoners, a move that would have closed a Kentucky company and left 100 people out of work.