THE VOICE OF BUSINESS AAeeff America's biggest growth industry By Richard L. Lesher, Pres. Chamber of Commerce of the United States Congressman Herb Harris is not one who fears adding insult to injury. At a time when inflation and taxes have risen to their most punishing levels in postwar history, the Northern Virginia legislator has dreamed up the ultimate cure for an ailing economy a bill to significantly increase the size of the federal bureaucracy. At first glance, the bill, (HR-4717), seems quite innocent. In fact, it's loaded with lost of reassuring rhetoric like "cost-effectiveness" and "personnel "per-sonnel ceilings." But these are mere buzz words; in truth, the legislation would present the federal government with an almost irresistable temptation not to contract out with private firms for good and services it needs. As a federal reporter for The Washington Star matter-of-factly explained: "Those agencies that increase in-crease in-house activities would be rewarded as far as their personnel ' ceilings are concerned, while those expanding their contracting out functions func-tions would be penalized." Not surprisingly, sur-prisingly, the nation's principal federal union, the American Federation of Government Employees, is a strong supporter of the Harris bill. One of the longest standing traditions of this country has been for government to rely upon competitive private bids for the goods and services it needs. President Carter put the issue in a nutshell when he stated in 1976: "When there's a choice to be made between the private sector and the government sector, my option would be for the private sector to assume the responsibility." respon-sibility." The reason this policy has endured so long is quite simple it works. Take a look at the space program. When most Americans think of our space effort, they think only of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Actually, by the mid-1960 s, some 20.000 companies were all working together on a least cost bid basis to send our astronauts to the moon and bring them back. Nowhere in the Harris bill is there any affirmation that the government will continue relying upon competitive enterprise to supply needed goods and services. Instead, the bill could literally devastate small business while placing the country squarely on the road to socialism. One top official of the Office of Management and Budget, W. Bowman Cutter, publicly testified that it would add a new bureaucratic machine, generate enormous paperwork paper-work and provide subtle but clear incentives in-centives to agencies not to contract out in order to increase their staff. And why not? Unlike private industry, in-dustry, where career progress depends upon one's ability to minimize costs while accomplishing objectives, a government employee's promotion often depends upon the size of his budget and the number of people who report to him. There are built-in disincentives to reducing the size of the bureaucracy. But the Harris bill would transform this bad situation into a dreadful one. Once a federal agency head knew he could acquire additional personnel simply by converting a project to in-house performance, per-formance, and that he would risk losing personnel by contracting out a new project, guess which option he would choose? Ironically, Mr. Harris argues his bill would help taxpayers, Cai - government grows because nt cessive contracting out, and conte federal employees can do the K-work K-work more cheaply themselves & the cart before the horse. The -" there- is more contracting because people in Congress, especl people like Mr. Harris, keep m. spend more or the public's rnone, To contend government usualTv" do any given job more efficiently.' private industry is truly to beij'J the Easter Bunny or the Tooth F-but F-but not in tangible realities liiie'i competition. Cities all across" country are saving taxpayers m, by contracting out for such services fire protection, garbage collect : even limited police work. A recent sutdy by the Rand c poration concluded the De';' Department alone could save Si If a year by using private firms form work now done by 250.0 service employees. Scores of t" petitions between government : industry document the ( effectiveness of contracting out. Mr. Harris' bill represents ort biggest federal employee relief--ever. How your Congressman ?i tually votes on this bill will tell yes; about where his or her priorities :j lie with those who psy D".os" America'a taxes. ..or those who & them.