As reported by the Committee on Governmental Affairs and amended and passed by the Senate, S. 209 provides authority for the Federal government to employ private attorneys to assist in the collection of delinquent debts that are owed to the Federal government. Payments to attorneys are to made out of the proceeds collected. For some time, private collection agencies have been employed by the government to assist in collecting these debts, but there has been an absence of authority to use private attorneys. The Department of Justice has been the sole legal counsel and litigant authorized to proceed against those who owe the government money and will not pay it. Because of the failure to be able to employ private counsel, the number of outstanding debts that are not collected has risen dramatically over the past few years.
Justice is ill-equipped to handle the massive volume of delinquent debts.
Even in those cases where judgments were secured, often the critical step of enforcement was not taken actually to collect moneys owed to the Treasury. This bill will enable Justice to reduce this backlog and, in a more expeditious way, handle hundreds of thousands of potential new cases that have yet to be referred by the agencies to whom debts are owed. It will bring desperately needed dollars back into the Treasury. And, it will not require any additional appropriation of funds. Payments to attorneys retained are to made out of proceeds collected.