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Washington, D.C.-- The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today said it supports the contention in a new public policy book that it takes much more to reshape the federal government effectively than merely reducing the number of federal employees and replacing them with outside contractors.

NTEU President Robert M. Tobias, an early and vocal critic of continuing efforts by the government to outsource and privatize more and more governmental functions, said the new book, "The True Size of Government," by Brookings Institution scholar Paul Light, "highlights and emphasizes a trend that affects and should disturb every American."

Light will outline his views at a press breakfast at 9:30 a.m. tomorrow at Brookings, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington.

Estimates of the amount of government business performed by the private sector run to more than $122 billion annually. NTEU is the largest independent federal sector union, representing more than 155,000 employees in 21 agencies and departments, including more than 98,000 in the Internal Revenue Service, whose work is frequently a target of some in Congress who would privatize at least a portion of the revenue collection process.

"Congress, the president and the American public [need to] stop pretending that government can get ever smaller while delivering the same mission," Light said, adding that "a little dose of reality on just what it takes to run the government is long overdue."

The Brookings author argues in his book that "it is time to abandon headcount constraints as a tool of federal workforce management," and he recommends "an end to further downsizing until Congress and the president develop a systematic plan for reshaping the federal workforce through deliberate means."

Light's book not only describes the depths of the cuts?more than 300,000 civilian jobs in recent years, even as the middle levels of government have grown and the contractor population has soared?but argues that "persistent, largely random downsizing weakens government's ability to deliver its mission."

If the president and Congress want to count heads, the Brookings scholar argues, "they should count every one of them, both in the official and the shadow government of federal contractors." Tobias said NTEU "could not agree more."