The Foreign Service Journal, January 2007

J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 5 Let me abandon my usual diplomatic reticence and speak frankly. It was a huge blow to the Foreign Service that the House Republican leadership decided at the end of the December lame duck session to jettison the heart and soul of the small foreign affairs authorization bill we had spent eight months work- ing on. In order to convince Congress to legislate Overseas Locality Pay, the State Department is going to have to put much more into the effort this year than it did in 2006. Secretary Rice will need to spend some of her abundant personal political capital, weighing in early and often directly with the key senators and representa- tives in both parties. Both those members concerned with foreign affairs issues and those holding the line on the budget need to under- stand clearly that eliminating the overseas pay disparity is truly a top State Department and Bush adminis- tration priority. Very few are aware of that presently. Congress needs to understand that this is not a pay-raise bill, but a pay- equity bill to remedy 13 years of increasing unfairness and dis- advantage that is both depressing FS morale and acting as a disincentive to meeting the Secretary’s call for in- creased time spent overseas. Please don’t get me wrong. A lot of good, highly competent people worked long and hard to get our bill passed. AFSA appreciates their efforts very much. But unfortunately, the vast major- ity of that effort was spent working at the necessary, but clearly not sufficient, con- gressional staff level. Much of that effort also occurred during three lost months when we were chasing our tails trying to achieve a legislative product that ful- filled the State Department’s pro- mise of a fair pay-for-performance system for non-senior employees (the quid pro quo we had to accept to get OCP) that would duplicate the sys- tem that has worked reasonably well since early 2004 for the Senior For- eign Service. This delay was compounded by the Secretary’s decision, as she put it in her recent cable to the field, to make “a personal appeal to Hill lead- ership (only) when the legislation had taken final shape.” While appreciat- ed, this appeal came so late that the key House leaders did not under- stand, and weren’t sensitive to, our issue. The case for priority must come from the top and be made well before the end-game, lest Congress get the idea that our bill is not really a top department priority. We under- stand that there were lots of sound reasons for the Secretary to be doing other things. In the end, it comes down to priorities, but the result speaks for itself. One senior State official contrasted for us the depart- ment’s effort here with that devoted to getting the U.S.-India Civilian Nuclear Agreement through Con- gress, where very heavy lifting indeed was required, was provided, and proved successful. Neither outcome was an accident. Ultimately, it was the price tag of providing OCP to the nearly 70 per- cent of the FS stationed overseas that was the issue. Congressional rules require “scoring” the cost by project- ing it out five years. We had focused on the $128 million cost this year to bring those folks up to Washington pay levels. But the official five-year figure of $570 million added an ele- ment of sticker shock that proved decisive, despite our arguments that the funds were built into the adminis- tration’s budget request and did not require new appropriations. We have already begun to pre- pare for the next Congress and to work with our many friends and allies on Capitol Hill and at State. It is difficult to assess our prospects for the next two years, though, given the changes of both the House and Senate leaderships. The FS community can help us do two things: first, sound off to convince State and other foreign affairs agen- cies that this is truly, by an order of magnitude, your top priority, and let them know you expect our political- appointee leaders to deliver and get this unfair pay disparity ended. Second, let Congress know the same thing. Please do not let a codel pass through without making this point, and help us ensure that we don’t fail again for lack of clear understanding of just how impor- tant this issue is. P RESIDENT ’ S V IEWS Sisyphus Chained: Overseas Locality Pay Sacrificed to “Budget Reality” B Y J. A NTHONY H OLMES J. Anthony Holmes is the president of the American Foreign Service Association.