The backlash from the recent loss of personal information on millions of veterans has set back efforts to promote telework, and is now being cited by the National Treasury employees union to add momentum behind amendments to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from starting to use companies this summer to collect delinquent taxes.
The House Government Reform Committee is focusing on personal information security at agencies, the VA has initiated a review of its information security and suspended telework temporarily, and the Office of Management and Budget has reissued guidance on agency information security programs.
Now, with the Internal Revenue Service set to implement its private collection program, and the current furor over the loss of veterans’ data, NTEU says the recent loss of an IRS laptop with information on 291 new hires and applicants should come under discussion.
“I hope the committee links the loss of that information to the serious risks to taxpayers’ personal and private information inherent in the IRS plan to turn over the records of some 2.65 million taxpayers annually to private sector debt collectors,” said NTEU president Colleen M. Kelley.
The House Appropriations Committee has put language in the fiscal 2007 Transportation-Treasury appropriations bill prohibiting the IRS from using appropriated funds for the privatization program.
Other House legislation, HR-1621, would revoke the agency’s authorization to hire companies to collect taxes.
