For Immediate Release
December 9, 2025
Press Contact: Communications & Outreach Deputy Director Nadja Ruzica | ruzica@afsa.org

Washington, D.C. – The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) is deeply concerned by the department’s recent announcement of “targeted administrative actions,” including retroactive promotions. The department claims that these were necessary to address concerns it identified with the 2024 promotion cycle following its unilateral decision in March 2025 to remove the DEIA Core Precept.

AFSA congratulates the Foreign Service members who were recognized for their performance. However, the department employed an opaque process to retroactively revise the work of duly constituted promotion boards. The department also failed to consult with AFSA in accordance with long-established past practices, norms, and procedures. These actions once again underscore the department's complete disregard for the workforce and the importance of confidence and integrity in the promotion system. The Foreign Service cannot function effectively without a promotion system that is consistent, transparent, and insulated from retroactive political or procedural shifts.

AFSA asserts that Foreign Service staff who dutifully executed the policies and procedures of a previous administration should not be penalized by retroactively imposed changes to the promotion precepts. The department must explain how these actions promote fairness for those who were recommended but not reached promotion this year and will now face challenges as others have been promoted ahead of them.

AFSA urges the department to adhere to its stated values of fairness and transparency and make the retroactive promotion list(s) public, as has been the historic practice. We also call on the department to release the survey data it claims demonstrated that the DEIA precept was “unadministrable.”

AFSA continues to press for a promotion system that is fair, transparent, and worthy of the career professionals who serve our country.

The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) is the professional association and labor union of the men and women of the United States Foreign Service.