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Washington, D.C. — The leader of the union representing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) employees today applauded action by the House Ways and Means Committee in its markup of tax legislation containing a provision that would end the IRS’s use of private debt collectors.

The measure —H.R. 3996—is sponsored by Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley welcomed the continuing support and attention to this issue of Rep. Rangel as well as that of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a long-time leader on this issue.

This vote comes on the heels of new information from the IRS that the program continues to fall far short of its revenue projections. Contracted collection agencies collected only $32.13 million in gross revenue combined through Sept. 30, far short of the $45.7 to $65 million projected for the year. All records indicate the privatization program will not break even this year.

In October, the House of Representatives approved free-standing legislation, H.R. 3056, that would accomplish the same goal—ending a misguided, costly program that seriously threatens the privacy and security of taxpayers’ personal information.

“I’m hopeful this double-barreled attack on the IRS tax privatization program will be sufficient to end it,” said President Kelley, who has been leading the fight against the use of debt collectors—an industry well-known for its abusive tactics.

A Ways and Means Committee hearing in May dealt in large part with a variety of taxpayer complaints about such tactics used by the private companies hired by the IRS.

NTEU is far from alone in its opposition to the IRS program, having been joined by a broad range of public interest groups as well as the IRS’s own National Taxpayer Advocate. In her most recent report to Congress, Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson called for repeal of IRS authorization for the program, criticizing it as not cost-efficient, adding unnecessary costs and burdens to taxpayers, and “surrendering too many valuable components of our tax administration system.”

The issue of cost, in particular, has drawn widespread and bipartisan congressional opposition to the privatization program. The IRS itself has told Congress that agency employees can perform the work at a far lower cost than private companies—generating a return on investment of 13 to 1 against the significantly lower 4 to 1 return by using private tax collectors.

Six public interest groups joined NTEU in sending a letter to committee members urging support for inclusion in H.R. 3996 of the provision ending the IRS program. Their letter said “rather than continuing to spend money on this misguided program, we believe these funds should instead be used to hire additional IRS collection employees such as those in the Automated Collection System (ACS), who generally collect about $1.49 million per employee per year.

In addition to NTEU, the letter was signed by the Consumer Federation of America, National Consumer Law Center, National Consumers League, NAACP, National Council of La Raza and National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

NTEU has long maintained that the most efficient and effective way to collect taxes and protect taxpayer privacy is by using the trained and accountable professionals of the IRS.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.