Hiring Lawyers to Collect U.S. Debts Is Backed

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation authorizing the Justice Department to hire private lawyers to collect debts owed to the government.

The bill, approved 95 to 1, now goes to the House. It would allow the government to use private lawyers to sue to collect debts owed the government, other than tax-related debts.

Those non-tax debts, which totaled $23.6 billion at the end of the last fiscal year, have doubled in four years.

Delinquent Debt Cases

As of July, there were 93,000 delinquent debt cases pending at the Justice Department. Backers of the legislation said it would allow the government to improve collection of the civil debts while freeing Justice Department lawyers to work on more pressing cases.

Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N.Y.) said: “While we talk about deficit reduction, there are billions of dollars owed to the federal government (by people) who have never been pressed.”

The money the bill seeks to collect represents defaulted loans from agencies and departments throughout the government, including more than $6.2 billion in agriculture loans and almost $4 billion in education loans.

Sen. Howell Heflin (D-Ala.), who did not speak against the measure, cast the only vote against approval.