A House-passed tax reform bill (HR-4520) would allow the IRS to hire private collection agencies to pursue delinquent taxpayers, even though a pilot program in 1996 and 1997 had what the House Ways and Means Committee terms “disappointing results”-a net wash in terms of how much was collected and a cost because IRS collection personnel were diverted from their usual collection responsibilities to work on the pilot. The National Treasury Employees Union is opposing the plan, saying that private tax collection is less cost-effective than using IRS personnel; proponents say that in general federal agencies are permitted to enter into contracts to collect debts owed to the government and that the policy should apply to tax debts as well. The bill now goes to a conference with the Senate, whose counterpart measure doesn’t include that provision.