Congressional Democrats have taken steps to end the IRS program that privatizes tax collection, GovExec reports today. The House bill (H.R. 695), offered by Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Steve Rothman, D-N.J., would repeal the authority Congress granted the IRS in 2004 to outsource some tax debt collections. The Senate measure, from Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., orders the suspension of an IRS program to use private collectors, and would block funds for the initiative. Instead of this program, which is unbelievably wasteful and could pose privacy risks, Rothman and Van Hollen have proposed a funding increase that would let IRS hire more staff to do collections. Nina Olson, the IRS taxpayer advocate, made similar recommendations in her annual report to Congress. And one quick complaint about the generally good GovExec article mentioned above. At the end, the advocacy front for private tax collectors made a statement that pretty obviously misrepresented the facts. The Tax Fairness Coalition, which represents private collection firms, said in a statement that the lawmakers are using "fear and innuendo designed to kill a successful program." The group argued that the program will make a significant contribution to closing the gap between taxes collected and owed, and already has exceeded expectations for the amounts collected. Amount collected so far: $11 million. Low-ball estimate of tax gap: $345 billion. GovExec was remiss for not providing more context.