John W. Olver: “I must admit that I find the idea of putting private, sensitive information in the hands of debt collectors very…”

“I must admit that I find the idea of putting private, sensitive information in the hands of debt collectors very troubling, and tax collection is a fundamental responsibility of government. However, in this instance, this program is limited to the effort, the proposal at least. And there is, as the chairman has pointed out, there is no legislation yet allowing this to be done. The proposal that has been put forward is only to use private collectors to go after what monies have already been adjudicated but not collected, that have just not been paid in after the judgments have been reached and the determinations by the normal staff of the IRS as to what was owed has been determined. So there is out there for years people who have just avoided doing that. And it is not our business, necessarily, to go after them and waste a lot of time on the part of our staff in the IRS to go after that, nor is it necessary that there be any particular information, sensitive information, that has to be involved in that kind of process.”