On the recordNovember 8, 2023
Let me say to the gentleman from Maryland that he will be happy to know that he actually accepted, en bloc, two of my amendments. Mr. Chair, I am blessed to chair the Oversight Subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, and within there is the use of technology. We have actually had to deal with the reality, if you are actually reading some of the reports that are coming from the IRS, that they can't seem to hire the people to do the audits. Apparently, there is a shortage of people with accounting and that type of talent. We actually brought two amendments--both made it into the en bloc, so I appreciate that--to actually go and use AI and technology to talk about exactly what the gentleman from Maryland said. I actually believe in many ways that is more ethical and moral because I can audit an algorithm. I can't audit someone's heart or their personal politics. We actually have demonstrations also on the customer service side with the use of chat AI and those things, but that is IRS. We are here talking about the Small Business Administration. I am trying to be intellectually consistent. We did our amendments there to pursue a rational use of technology. If it is true that there may be, according to this article, an estimated $62 billion in past due pandemic loans, if it costs more than $62 billion for the Small Business Administration to go collect $62 billion, the world has come to an end. I mean, let's be intellectually consistent here.…
