Another Showdown over Contracting Brewing

By: fedweek

The White House has threatened to veto a House-passed bill (HR-3056) that would repeal the authority to use contractors to collect tax debt. “Terminating this program would result in a loss of significant revenue over the next ten years. These are tax dollars that are legally owed to the government and that are otherwise not likely to be collected by the IRS,” the statement said. The National Treasury Employees Union and congressional sponsors of the repeal argue that the overdue payments could be collected by IRS employees if the agency had sufficient resources and that the work should be deemed inherently governmental due to privacy concerns. The House bill could amount to staking out a position for upcoming decisions in the context of an appropriations bill (HR-2829) where the program’s fate may be decided, at least for the next year.