POWER Act
Latest action · Jan 6, 2009 Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 6, 2009
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
Prisoner Opportunity, Work, and Education Requirement Act or the POWER Act - Amends the Crime Control Act of 1990 to require federal prison inmates to: (1) work for not less than 50 hours weekly; and (2) engage in job training and educational and life skills preparation study.
Requires Federal Prison Industries (a government corporation) to employ inmates in manufacturing activities by subcontracting with private sector contractors. Requires inmate wages earned in a 50-hour work week program to be used for the costs of incarceration, victim restitution, inmate expenses, and related state and local prisoner programs.
Repeals certain provisions restricting the funding of, and purchase of products from, Federal Prison Industries and prohibiting a public private competition for work performed by employees of the Bureau of Prisons and Federal Prison Industries.
Directs the Attorney General to establish the Foreign Labor Substitute Panel to review pilot projects by U.S. companies for the manufacture of goods by federal convicts that would otherwise be manufactured by foreign labor.
Revises federal criminal code provisions to restate the mission, operating objectives, performance standards, and other requirements for Federal Prison Industries.
Requires the Comptroller General to provide for annual independent evaluations of the operations of Federal Prison Industries and to report to Congress on such evaluations (currently, the Board of Directors of Federal Prison Industries is required to report to Congress).
Cosponsors
Members who signed on, in the order they did.
Actions 2
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Jan 6, 2009Introduced in Senate
- Jan 6, 2009Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 6, 2009Introduced in Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.