The Foreign Service Journal, January 2008

U.S. diplomats since the Vietnam War.” Numerous nationalmedia report this story on Saturday morning, Oct. 27. Oct. 27, 30andNov5: AFSA sends out AFSAnetmessages and telegrams updating members on the status of the prime can- didate exercise and calling on Foreign Servicemembers to consider volunteering for Iraq positions. Oct.29: E-mail notifications begin togo out from State to approximately 230 For- eign Service officers who have been iden- tified for one ormore Iraq jobs. Theyhave 14 days to respond. Oct.29: AFSAbeginshearing fromhun- dreds of Foreign Service members about the prime candidate exercise. AFSAPresi- dent John Naland and AFSA VP Steve Kashkett respondpersonally to eachof the hundreds of e-mails that come in on all sides of the Iraq staffing issue. Kashkett answers every one of the over 140 e-mails fromState active-dutymembers identified as prime candidates. In addition, a pro- fessional staff member from the AFSA State Labor Management Office also weighs in on each prime candidate case raised. Oct.31: TheDGholds a townhallmeet- ing at the StateDepartment toaddress con- cerns about the prime candidate exercise. The meeting turns contentious. Oct. 31: AnAP reporter present at this in-house meeting files a story including details of the most emotional exchanges. The story is pickedupbymedia all over the country, and is followedby numerous op- ed pieces criticizing the Foreign Service. Nov. 1: AFSA is inundatedwithmedia requests for interviews and initiatesmajor outreach effort to correct misperceptions about the ForeignService and Iraq staffing. Naland appears on CNN and the News- Hour. Naland and Kashkett give several dozen interviews, including ABC, CBS, NBC and others. BothNaland andKash- kett are quoted several times in the Wash- ingtonPost andother nationalmedia, help- ing to ensure more balanced coverage. Nov. 2: Sec. Rice sends worldwide telegramencouraging ForeignService offi- cers to volunteer for Iraq assignments. Nov.2: NalandandKashkettmeetwith the director general urginghimnot to rush to implement directedassignments. AFSA expresses confidence that enough volun- teers will step forward and that directed assignments will not be necessary. Nov. 8: SteveKashkett is a guest on the DianeRehmshowalongwithAmbassador ThomasKrajeski (State assignments direc- tor), Ambassador Edward “Skip” Gnehm (former director general) and former FSO John Brady Kiesling. Nov. 10: AFSA sends out a message, “Defending our Foreign Service in the Current Crisis,” calling onForeignService members to help set the record straight in the publicmind bywriting to their home- townnewspapers. Members respond, and letters are soon published in the Boston Globe, Sacramento Bee, Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Penn.), BellinghamHerald, Ocean City Today, among others. An op- ed by Steve Kashkett in defense of the Foreign Service appears in the Nov. 20 Washington Times. Nov.16: The WashingtonPost andother media report that theStateDepartmentwill call off the directed assignments exercise because enough volunteers came forward for the 48 open Iraq positions. Nov. 19: The State Department announces that qualified candidates for all 48 positions have volunteered and cancels the directed assignments exercise. Nov. 19: The AP reports that the State Department has shifted focus to filling positions in the next priority category for summer 2008 — more than 500 jobs at unaccompanied posts. If those jobs are not filled by volunteers, directed assign- ments may follow. To Be Continued … 64 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / J A NU A R Y 2 0 0 8 As we begin 2008, the 110th Congress has a full agenda heading into the critical November elections. AFSA continues to weigh in with key decisionmakers on the issue of pay modernization. We are proac- tively engaging pressure points to influence the process and continue to utilize unique member stories to bridge differences. We have not given up. We look forward to working with the administration and Congress to find a solution to this growing problem. We also continue to work on appropria- tions issues. The president’s emergency sup- plemental spending bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was still pending in late November. In October, AFSA worked hard to convince lawmakers that such emergency spending for the wars should include funds to expand the Foreign Service, which is stretched too thin around the world. In essence, the diplomatic corps is facing an emergency itself on the staffing front. Further, the president’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget request for international affairs, known as the 150 Account, will reach the desks of lawmakers in early February follow- ing his last State of the Union address. AFSA and other organizations will collectively make the case as the budget moves forward that more Foreign Service positions must be fund- ed, and that diplomats must be given the resources and tools they need to properly do their jobs in the field. A host of other issues — taxes, benefits and retiree concerns — round out AFSA’s full leg- islative agenda. We appreciate your support. Please feel free to e-mail Legislative Affairs Director Ian Houston at houston@afsa.org if you have any comments or questions. Current information on what AFSA is doing on the Hill can be found on the legislative affairs page of the Web site at www.afsa.org/ congress.cfm. A F S A N E W S Prime Candidates • Continued from page 57 AFSA NEWS BRIEFS From the Legislative Affairs Desk