Serious concerns are raised in your Feb. 23 front-page article on the Federal Government's mushrooming loan liabilities and the shortage of workers to oversee the loans.
In 1995, I conducted a study that showed that a small percentage of individuals, businesses and organizations owe the Government about $55 billion in delinquent nontax receivables. From 1994 to 1995, when cumulative delinquent debt rose 15 percent, nontax debt collections decreased by 14.5 percent.
Examples of nontax debt include farm loans, defaulted housing loans and oil pollution cost fees. Many delinquent debtors are able to pay but do not because of lax collection efforts.
The report disclosed a hodgepodge of collection methods and procedures that hinder the Government's ability to collect or to make good loans.
I have worked with the Treasury Department and the Republican chairman of the subcommittee on government reform, Stephen Horn, to draft legislation that would enhance debt collection efforts by helping agencies share information, standardize and centralize debt-management functions within the Treasury Department and strengthen debt-collection regulations.
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