[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 5433]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 LEGISLATION TO IMPROVE DEBT COLLECTION

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. TODD RUSSELL PLATTS

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 17, 2005

  Mr. PLATTS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce important 
legislation that will improve the way the Federal government collects 
delinquent non-tax debts.
  This legislation would amend the Debt Collection Act to eliminate the 
10-year limitation on the collection of delinquent federal debts 
through the Treasury Offset Program, which is maintained by the 
Financial Management Service at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. A 
request for this legislation was transmitted as part of President 
Bush's Fiscal Year 2006 Budget request. It is estimated that this 
provision would return $6 million to the Treasury in the first year of 
implementation, and at least $11 million each year thereafter.
  Non-tax debt would include defaulted loans or overpayments to 
vendors. Under current law, the only type of non-tax debt not subject 
to the 10-year limitation is defaulted student loans owed to the U.S. 
Department of Education. This legislation would bring all other types 
of debt in line with the requirements for repaying student loans.
  The U.S. government should have the ability to collect each and every 
debt. This money belongs to the taxpayers. No one should be able to 
avoid responsibility simply by waiting for an arbitrary time limit to 
expire. In times of tightening budgets, we cannot afford to allow 
delinquent debtors to shift their burdens onto taxpayers.

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