Political Quotes

“My amendment to H.R. 5025 seeks to keep the collection of taxes in the IRS and not to a private debt collector. I wish to make it clear today that I am in complete support of efficient and effective enforcement of tax collection activities at all levels of the Federal Government. I also realize that we must recover the billions and billions of dollars in uncollected and delinquent tax revenue, but at what cost. If we authorize the Treasury to allow the IRS to contract with private companies to collect delinquent Federal taxes, I am extremely concerned that harm could result from handing over sensitive personal and financial tax information to private sector businesses to carry out what OMB and IRS have officially characterized as an inherently governmental function. Allowing for private debt collection contracts could create a multitude of problems. For instance, any negligent or criminal disclosure of sensitive taxpayer data by private sector tax collectors could result in fraudulent charges through identity theft and ruined credit histories for innocent taxpayers. Moreover, the potential for harassment by debt collectors is compounded by the private sector tax collection practice of using incentive-based commission compensation.”