For Immediate Release
April 1, 2026
Press Contact: Communications & Outreach Director Nikki Gamer | gamer@afsa.org

Washington, D.C. – AFSA supports the overdue resumption of Foreign Service recruitment as a critical step toward rebuilding a workforce that has lost more than 20 percent of its ranks since January 2025. However, today’s State Department announcement outlining reforms to the selection and training processes raises serious concerns.

The first problem is framing. The announcement suggests that rigorous training in American history, diplomacy, and negotiation is new. It is not. These subjects have long been central to Foreign Service orientation. The issue was never what our diplomats were taught.

Second, we are concerned about what this “reform” will look like in practice. Will officers receive a broad grounding in American foreign policy, or will their curriculum be shaped by ideological concerns? The answer matters enormously for the institution’s credibility and effectiveness.

We also take issue with the claim that the previous test included “questions intended to test alignment with ideological agendas.” We see a far greater risk that political ideology could now be introduced into the selection process.

The elimination of the Qualifications Evaluation Panel (QEP), dismissed without explanation, removes a process that brought demonstrable value to the Foreign Service. It helped identify candidates with critical language skills, such as Chinese, Arabic, and Farsi—as well as real-world international experience.

Finally, these reforms arrive against a troubling backdrop: the elimination of the Diplomats in Residence program, disruptions to the Pickering and Rangel Fellowships, and the loss of a disproportionate share of the Foreign Service’s most experienced officers. Reforming the entry pipeline without addressing these issues compounds the crisis rather than correcting it.

As the professional association and exclusive representative of the Foreign Service, AFSA is committed to the integrity of the institution and its future. That is why we are calling on the department to answer fundamental questions: how these reforms will be implemented — and whether the goal is to produce well-rounded diplomats or narrow ideologues.

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