84 -- FPI's T-Shirt Production in FY 2003

The Federal Prison Industries, Inc. (FPI) Industries Reform Act of 1988 established the Industry Involvement Guidelines which, in part, provide procedures that FPI will follow prior to initiating production of a new product or significant expansions of an existing product. During the recent preparation of the annual Sales Report, FPI management staff noted that t-shirt production was over the Board of Directors approved units for FY 2003. FPI has produced t-shirts at its facility at FCI Jesup since the 1980s. In 1995, FPI began screen printing t-shirts for the Air Force at FCI Jesup. FPI received the t-shirts from a private vendor, screen printed them, and forwarded the t-shirts to the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia (DSCP) for the Air Force. In FY 2003, FPI was informed that the vendor that made the fabric and cut the t-shirts were sending the cut pieces to Mexico to be sewn. DoD advised FPI to discontinue the purchase of the t-shirts produced outside of the U.S. In an effort to comply with DSCP’s request, FPI subsequently began to make the t-shirts in-house with domestically purchased fabric, as it does for other PFU t-shirts it produces for DSCP. This action resulted in FPI inadvertently exceeding its Board approved production level in FY 2003 for t-shirts by 230,000 units. The Board approved sales level was not exceeded. FPI has therefore requested retroactive approval from the Board of this overage in unit production of t-shirts in FY 2003. This notice solicits comments from interested parties concerning any impact related to FPI’s failure to go through the guidelines process during the time period in question. Comments on this notice are due within 30 days of the date of publication in the FedBizOpps. All comments received will be forwarded to FPI’s Board of Directors for consideration as the Board evaluates FPI’s request for ratification of the production of t-shirts. Any correspondence should be addressed to: Chief Administrative Officer, Research, Activation, and Corporate Support, Federal Prison Industries, Inc., 320 First Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20534. Attention: RACS Branch.