Ernest Istook: “Mr. Chairman, I appreciate Mrs. Capito's amendment and the seriousness of this issue. When we talk about private…”

“Mr. Chairman, I appreciate Mrs. Capito's amendment and the seriousness of this issue. When we talk about private collection of debts, we should understand that the Federal Government is already using private debt collectors in other areas. One significant example is student loans. I have certainly visited facilities where private companies are handling the confidential information involved. They are handling it with responsibility. They are handling it in compliance with all legal standards, and they are doing a very good job for the Government, not only getting revenue that we would lose otherwise if we did not collect on the debts but collecting on debts that the Federal Government was having difficulty being able to collect upon. Not only is this happening in the Federal Government, it is happening in State government. We have a number of States that already use private vendors to collect delinquent taxes on behalf of their State government. Again, they manage to handle these issues of confidentiality in a very responsible manner. There is no reason to believe that a private entity is unable to do this.”