Leach's Lash

Battling big bureaucracy

Who is the most hated man in Washington? There may be many contenders, but there is only one champion: James Leach, 36, a hitherto little-known Republican Congressman from Iowa.

Last fall Leach committed the heinous sin of persuading Congress to pass two bureaucracy-busting amendments to the Civil Service Reform Act. One requires the Government to reduce its civilian work force by Sept. 30 to the level of two years before and maintain it for three years--a cut of 29,000 employees. The second amendment orders the Administration to think up ways of shipping part of the Federal Government out of town.

The order to reduce the body bureaucratic has Washington in a turmoil, although the cuts could be accomplished quite painlessly by replacing only three out of every four people who routinely leave Government. Officials are blaming Leach for everything that goes wrong. "So you're the one who has ruined my department," grumped Energy Secretary James Schlesinger on meeting the determined Congressman.

In appropriation hearings, witnesses from the Environmental Protection Agency claimed that they were unable to control toxic substances because they could not hire enough staff. HEW lamented that it could not correct abuse and error because of missing personnel in its newly created Inspector General's office. What reason did the scandal-ridden General Services Administration give for not speeding up its investigations? Because of Leach, there was a paucity of gumshoes.

The outcry is not too convincing since President Carter has increased the federal payroll by 112,000 jobs after eight years of Republican rule eliminated 115,000 posts. Admits Alan Campbell, chief of the Office of Personnel Management: "The ceilings are creating some need for reshuffling and reassigning of employees, but people can live within the limits and still perform their functions." Bureaucrats also quail at the threat of having to leave Washington. Leach would like to rusticate Energy to Colorado, Agriculture to Iowa, coincidentally Leach's home state. Says he: "This would give bureaucrats the opportunity to live under the rules they write and see firsthand the too often counterproductive efforts of a well-meaning Uncle Sam." Could be. But there is not much chance of the bureaucracy budging that far, not even to appease the most hated man in Washington.

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