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AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION

2101 E Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 -- Phone: (202) 338-4045, ext. 517
Fax: (202) 338-6820 -- E-Mail afsa@afsa.org

WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF THE
AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION
TO THE HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE’S
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, JUSTICE, STATE, AND THE JUDICIARY
BY JOHN K. NALAND, AFSA PRESIDENT

April 12, 2002


Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) appreciates the opportunity to share the views of the Foreign Service with the Subcommittee as you work on the appropriations for the Department of State and its programs. We serve as the professional organization and the recognized bargaining agent of the 23,000 active-duty and retired members of the Foreign Service. The decisions that this Subcommittee and the Congress make directly affect our professional and personal lives as we serve in more than 250 posts and missions around the world to preserve and enhance our country’s national security interests.

On March 6, Secretary of State Collin Powell spoke before this Subcommittee. He thanked this Subcommittee for the support that was provided in funding the Department of State in the FY02 appropriations. He spoke eloquently of the need to continue that support as the Administration works to “align both the organization of and the conduct of America’s foreign policy with the dictates of the 21st Century.”

The American Foreign Service Association joins the Secretary in thanking you for your strong support of the Administration’s FY02 request. We followed the appropriations debate closely last year and we certainly appreciate the work of the House in that process.

As the Secretary said, the State Department’s request for FY03 is a continuation of the effort to rebuild the infrastructure of the Department. We fully support that request as the minimum necessary level of funding for people, technology, and security.

PERSONNEL. The Department’s request proposes funds sufficient to recruit, hire, train, and deploy 399 additional foreign affairs professionals and 134 more security professionals above attrition. This represents the second year of a three-year rebuilding effort that began with last year’s funding of 360 new foreign affairs and 186 new security professional positions. The objective of this three-year rebuilding effort is to make up for a 1,100+ personnel shortfall in overseas staffing that arose during the 1990s. This hollowed out staffing structure strained the Foreign Service in its ability to fully represent and advance the national security interests of our nation. It reduced the amount of training that our people could take because it forced both the Department and individuals to choose between leaving positions vacant while personnel took the necessary training or to send the person to post without training. And the personnel shortfall adversely affected Foreign Service morale as people were constantly being asked to do more with less, even while they and their families often served in hardship and dangerous locations. Therefore, AFSA strongly supports the FY03 requested staffing increase and urges that the final installment of needed new positions be funded in the FY04 budget.

We have one area of concern that we hope will be addressed in the Committee’s report accompanying the appropriations bill. Last year, as the Department explained its FY02 request, part of the personnel funding was to be used to address concerns about morale, recruitment, and retention of Foreign Service personnel. For instance, funds were to implement a student loan repayment program, to continue a pilot program in Mexico for increased spousal employment and possibly expand it worldwide, and to continue a pilot program to address staffing in hard-to-fill posts. Although unmentioned in the Administration’s FY03 budget request, these proposals from last year are still important initiatives, and we urge the Committee to encourage the Department to continue and expand these programs.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, there is one more issue that needs to be discussed when talking about providing adequate compensation for Foreign Service personnel. We understand that the Department is seeking to correct inequities arising from the fact that Foreign Service personnel lose their locality pay adjustments when they serve abroad. AFSA strongly endorses the Department’s efforts to convince the Administration to support implementation of an overseas comparability adjustment based upon D.C. area locality pay. There is a huge financial disincentive to serve abroad because of the loss of locality pay. Since allowances and differentials do not count in determining retirement annuities, the annuities of our members who retire following an overseas assignment is computed at a lower level than D.C.-posted counterparts. This affects our annuities in terms of both the formula for computation and the amount that can be contributed into the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). Further, since allowances and differentials are computed as percentages of base pay, their value can be lost or seriously decreased when compared to what our D.C.–posted counterpart is receiving in base pay plus locality pay. Thus, compensation for serving in a hardship or danger post is decreased when compared to what we could earn by serving in Washington. There was a time when the difference was minor. Today, when we serve abroad, we take an 11.43% cut in salary and possible TSP contribution levels. We ask that the Subcommittee give favorable consideration to the idea of an overseas comparability pay adjustment for Foreign Service personnel posted abroad

TECHNOLOGY. When the Secretary met with this Committee, he discussed the Department’s efforts to put Internet access on all Department desktops around the world, and to provide classified connectivity to all posts approved for classified communications. For far too long, the Department was known for its antiquated equipment as it struggled to be this nation’s lead foreign affairs agency. AFSA receives a monthly briefing from the Department on its progress in improving its information and telecommunications system. More importantly, we get reports from our members in the field when things go wrong. Mr. Chairman, as an independent voice, AFSA is pleased to report to you that we are satisfied with the Department’s progress to date. Funding requested in the FY03 budget request will allow this needed progress to continue.

SECURITY. For the second year in a row, the Administration’s request for embassy security funding is at the $1.3 billion level that was recommended by the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel (OPAP) and is close to the levels recommended by Admiral Crowe and the Accountability Review Boards (ARB) that looked into the 1998 bombings at our embassies in east Africa. The ARB had recommended a 10-year, $1.4 billion a year embassy security upgrade program.

AFSA deeply thanks the Members of this Subcommittee and the Congress for consistently demonstrating its support for protecting the Foreign Service as we work in our missions, and in meeting the request of the Administration in funding for embassy security. Unfortunately, because it took 4 years starting in 1998 to get to recommended funding levels for security, we are behind the ARB’s schedule. Being behind means that more posts and missions would be better protected today had there been adequate funding in the early years. The FY03 request is $61 million below FY02. The Department utilized the higher levels last year, and AFSA believes that similar levels without a decrease should be provided this year as well.

Mr. Chairman, in the area of security, there is one concern to which we wish to draw the Subcommittee’s attention. When both the Accountability Review Board and the Overseas Presence Advisory Panel made their recommendations, the emphasis was placed on protecting government facilities abroad from future terrorist attacks. There was always concern, though a generally unspoken concern, that as we “hardened” our missions, terrorists would go after Americans, and particularly representatives of the U.S. government, in “softer” targets. The recent terrorist bombing of the church in Islamabad that killed a member of the embassy staff and her teenage daughter puts a harsh light on that concern. We believe the concept of embassy security needs to be expanded to encompass the embassy community. In part, AFSA believes that this will entail the continued hiring of security professionals and funding to move from a protective, defensive posture to a more aggressive preventive approach to security. We encourage the Subcommittee to join AFSA in engaging the Department in identifying practical solutions to the expanded threat to Americans and to American personnel abroad.

A REINVIGORATED FOREIGN SERVICE. Finally, Mr. Chairman, as vital as increased funding is for people, technology, and security, AFSA believes that funding by itself will not guarantee that the Foreign Service possesses the attributes needed to best serve the President, the Congress, and the American people in meeting the challenges of the 21st Century. AFSA believes that the Foreign Service will also need to develop new skills and a new organizational culture.

In the past, AFSA has worked with the Congress in supporting legislation that mandated the Department to do workforce planning (PL 106-113). We also supported Congressional provisions requiring the Department to report on management training for Foreign Service personnel and to report on the assignment of language trained personnel to language designated positions.

Since July 2001, AFSA has been working with the Director General of the Foreign Service in developing reforms to the Foreign Service personnel system. To date, we have reached agreement on over a dozen reforms, including:

1. Establishing leadership and management training requirements that employees must meet by key stages of their career. These requirements will be enforced by promotion precepts that will deny promotions to those who have not taken the required training.

2. Enforce rules governing “worldwide availability” so that Foreign Service members do not extend in Washington or certain posts abroad for unusual lengths of time.

3. Increase the separation of unsatisfactory performers by having the Director General meet with members of the Commissioning and Tenure Boards at the State Department to reinforce with them their duty to identify unsatisfactory performers. AFSA alerted the Department to the fact that, while between 3.5% and 7.9% of career candidates were denied tenure during the mid-1990s, less than 1% were denied tenure in 1998 and 1999.

4. We have come to agreement on the first of several reforms that AFSA hopes will change the organizational culture of the Foreign Service. The Department has agreed to put added weight on demonstrated leadership, managerial ability, and good interpersonal skills when selecting personnel to be assigned to Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) and other senior positions.

AFSA also recently proposed changes to the Director General to re-shape the core precepts for promotion in the Foreign Service -- thereby changing the culture of the Service. For example, it is AFSA’s view that the absence from the precepts of such attributes as responsible risk-taking – added to the exaggerated premium that the precepts place on harmony and “respectful” behavior – serves to perpetuate a risk-averse, form-over-substance culture in the Foreign Service that is ill-suited for actively advancing American interests in the 21st Century.

CONCLUSION. AFSA agrees with Secretary Powell when he said that events on and since the tragic day of September 11 have made it clear “that American leadership in international affairs is critical” and that “out on the front lines of diplomacy, we want a first-class offense for America.” We agree with him that “quality people with high morale, combined with superb training and adequate resources, are the key to a first-class offense.”

Mr. Chairman, this has been AFSA’s position over the years. We believe that the funds requested for Fiscal Year 2003 and the Supplemental Request that has recently been forwarded, help provide the minimum but necessary resources that will allow the Department and the Foreign Service to rebuild both its infrastructure and the Service itself to meet the challenges of this new century. As in the past, we stand ready to serve this Nation in advancing our national security interests abroad. We urge that you provide the necessary resources to do so.