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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees today called on a key House committee to approve an amendment to be offered by Rep. Steven Rothman (D-NJ) that would prevent the IRS from hiring private debt collectors to pursue tax debts in the coming fiscal year.

“The Rothman amendment represents smart national policy and it should be adopted” by the House Appropriations Committee, said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). The committee is scheduled to mark up the fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill tomorrow afternoon.

NTEU has been leading the fight against IRS efforts to privatize tax debt collection; the Rothman amendment represents the latest expression of growing congressional concern about the program. There also is legislation in the House, H.R. 1621, that would revoke the IRS’s authority to hire private debt collectors.

That authority was granted to the IRS without a vote by Congress on the merits of the proposal but was rather inserted into an unrelated corporate tax bill.

As is NTEU, Rep. Rothman is concerned about the cost of the IRS program. The debt collectors would be paid between 21 and 24 percent of the money they collect, depending on the size of the debt; in addition, the IRS would pay each private company an additional fee for each resolved case.

That would result in the government paying nearly 25 cents for every dollar collected. By contrast, the IRS itself has said that a modest investment in agency resources for collection would result in IRS employees returning about $30 to the Treasury for every dollar spent.

In addition to its high cost—and the failed history of a similar effort by the IRS a decade ago—NTEU has warned repeatedly of the dangers to taxpayers’ private and sensitive information of turning over such data to private debt collectors.

“We have seen numerous incidents where large amounts of individuals’ private information is lost or stolen, putting people at risk for identity theft,” Kelley said. “IRS employees have long protected taxpayers’ private information but the IRS loses control once the data is handed over to debt collection companies. Opening taxpayers up to potential data loss is simply not a good idea.”

Debt collection companies consistently make up the most complained-about industry in America, according to Federal Trade Commission consumer complaint data.

Earlier this year NTEU launched a web site aimed at providing to taxpayers information that the IRS was not making known about its efforts to use private debt collection companies and other initiatives that put Americans at risk. That web site can be found at www.nteuIRSwatch.org.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 federal workers in 30 agencies and departments, including 90,000 in the IRS.