Huizenga Leads on Jobs, Fights for West Michigan Small Businesses

Press Release

Today, CNN Money wrote a piece featuring Congressman Huizenga's work on promoting private sector job creation over government owned UNICOR. With unemployment over 8% for 42 consecutive months, Congressman Huzenga taken the lead, and garnered bipartisan support to help West Michigan small businesses and help get Michiganders back to work.

* Unicor is a government-run enterprise that employs over 13,000 inmates -- at wages as low as 23 cents an hour -- to make goods for the Pentagon and other federal agencies. With some exceptions, Unicor gets first dibs on federal contracts over private companies as long as its bid is comparable in price, quantity and delivery. In other words: If Unicor wants a contract, it gets it.

* In 2008, Congress amended the law to limit Unicor's advantage for certain kinds of Pentagon contracts. Now a bill in the House supported by 28 lawmakers from both parties would go further and require Unicor to compete across the board.

* "We know that in the recovery, many new jobs are coming out of small businesses," said Rep. Bill Huizenga, a Michigan Republican who introduced the bill. "It makes no sense to strangle them in the cradle." Huizenga expects a similar bill to be introduced in the Senate in the coming months.

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