The Foreign Service Journal, January 2003

24 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 3 shared cost of that is ludicrous.” But she is convinced that Congress will produce a better plan. “They don’t want four agencies deciding what colors the walls should be. The money will go to the agency that is responsible. It will all be sorted out.” The prospect of a huge budget hit is especially worri- some because the Commercial Service — and especially the Foreign Service component — feels strong budget constraints already (though not as badly as in 1995, when Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich proposed abolish- ing the Department of Commerce entirely). The Commercial Service as a whole has about 1,800 employees, a number that has stayed fairly constant in recent years. But Eric Sletten, the CS regional director for Europe, observes about the agency’s Foreign Service contingent, “In the last year we either attritted or RIFed 100 FSNs, we ran 27 posts vacant and we closed six posts.” Negretti adds, “The number of offices is staying pret- ty flat. We’ve opened as many as we’ve closed. We closed one in Genoa and opened one in Accra, Ghana.” He says that the new DG made clear “her aim was to reduce or at least keep flat. She didn’t want to see us growing.” Cino acknowledges, “We’ve tightened our belts a bit. We’ve looked at cost-cutting things such as reduced rents, smaller spaces. We’re right-sizing our organiza- tion, seeing where we need to put our people.” Sletten takes a philosophical view of the current bud- get restrictions: “We understand that in the current envi- ronment, the money and the resources are being poured into security and homeland defense. It’s pretty hard to argue that we’re being given short shrift. The adminis- tration has its priorities where they should be. We’re not at the top of that list.” With a static budget and personnel roster, it’s extremely difficult for the service to meet requests for establishment of new posts. Says Sletten, “Quite frankly, the pressure from ambassadors is just relentless. It’s a zero-sum game. If some ambassador somewhere is suc- cessful in strong-arming us into opening up a post or sending an officer, it comes at a cost to some other post.” “We have a lot of two-officer posts that over the last two or three years have become one-officer posts and really shouldn’t be,” Sletten adds. Because the Foreign Commercial Service is so small, with 220 officers and 27 vacant slots, “this creates enor- mous problems for us,” says Sletten. “What we don’t have is a ‘bench.’ We have no subs to send into the game. One person curtails or resigns, and it creates an enormous ripple effect. You end up having to move sev- eral officers because of one unexpected vacancy.” The personnel shortage is about to get worse, Sletten says. That’s because the Commercial Service was found- ed in 1980, so some officers are beginning to retire after putting in 20 years. “It’s already started this year. Out of roughly 40 senior officers, we’ve had four voluntary res- ignations and retirements this year. That’s 10 percent of the senior corps. “The next challenge will be how to prepare the next generation of officers to take over and manage these larger posts that are now being run by senior FSOs who are close to retirement,” Sletten says. Overcoming the Distance Barrier Life for the Commercial Service has become harder since Sept. 11, 2001. Business travelers would rather not get blown up or taken hostage on their export-driven journeys. The changed environment shows up in lots of ways. At some posts, the number of U.S. personnel has been reduced. Says Commercial Service officer Pete Frederick, “At one point we had six officers in Indonesia; now we have one. We do have 20 FSNs.” Marketing Director Doug Barry adds, “It’s a chal- lenge now to get U.S. companies to come to Indonesia. Some companies have security concerns about the Philippines. But we still try to help companies, via the Internet and videoconferencing. Sales are still being made in these countries.” And it’s not just U.S. companies that are affected. “After Sept. 11, the number of foreign buyers coming to U.S. trade shows declined,” says Barry. “But there’s a recovery now — attendance is almost back to where it was.” Donald Businger, director of the Office of Trade Promotion Programs, was recently stationed in Montreal. He observes that “the economy’s been slow, companies are looking to cut expenses. If there’s any big security threat out there, a lot of travel budgets and par- ticipation in international events will be cut.” But Businger says that even security threats can pro- duce business opportunities. “We did a security equip- ment show in Montreal where U.S. security product F O C U S