Collectors Spent $1.9 million to Lobby Congress

The accounts receivable management industry spent at least $1.86 million to lobby members of Congress in 2007, up from $1.6 million in 2006, according to public records from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). Nearly one-third of the spending was by government collections specialist Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson,

But the dollars spent total is probably higher than that. CRP cautions that lobbying reports are still coming in from the Senate’s Office of Public Records, the source for the data. Companies and trade groups that spend money lobbying Congress are required to file documents every year tracking their spending and the firms they hire. The CRP, a non-partisan research group, gathers the data and posts it on its Web site.

Collection industry groups could spend lobbying dollars on a wide variety of issues, from Fair Debt Collection Practices Act reform to government collection contracts.

The biggest spender in the industry was Austin, Texas-based Linebarger, paying $650,000 in 2007 on lobbying, up from the $525,000 it spent in 2006. Linebarger was one of the original three companies that worked on the IRS private debt collection contract, but the firm left the contract in early 2007.

Sallie Mae’s subsidiary Pioneer Credit Recovery is one of two collection agencies still working on the IRS contract. The other, Waterloo, Iowa-based CBE Group, reported spending $200,000 lobbying Congress last year. (On the other side of the issue, the program’s main opposition, the National Treasury Employees Union, spent $571,000 on lobbying in 2007.)

Other major ARM spenders include industry trade group ACA International doling out last year $460,000, down from the $680,000 it spent in 2006. Debt buyers’ group DBA International said it spent $82,000 last year, up from $40,000 in 2006.

Several individual companies also made an appearance on the list, some for the first time. ARM industry heavyweight NCO Group spent $70,000 on lobbying efforts, up from the $40,000 it spent in 2006. Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. (OSI) – which NCO recently acquired (“NCO Group Completes Acquisition of OSI,” March 3) – paid lobbyists $120,000 in 2007 compared with $40,000 in 2006.

Toledo, Ohio-based United Collection Bureau spent $120,000 on lobbying last year, doubling the amount it spent in 2006. Canadian collection agency Allied International Credit Corp., Buffalo, N.Y.-based Creditors Interchange, and Houston-based GC Services all reported paying lobbyists $40,000 each last year. West Asset Management, a division of call center operator West Corp., also spent $40,000 on lobbying in 2007, a year that marked WAM’s first entry on the list.

Putting together a total spending figure for the industry is complicated by the nature of the business. For example, student loan provider Sallie Mae – which has extensive debt collection operations – reported spending $4,040,000 on lobbying last year. But the company did not report how much it spent specifically on debt collection or ARM lobbying.