The Foreign Service Journal, January 2009

A s we prepare to welcome a new Secretary of State,AFSA looks forward to presenting her management team with a “most urgent” list: the actions the department needs to undertake to restore fairness, employee-friendliness and professional pride to the Foreign Service. A useful start- ing point would be to take stock of the past two years by re- viewing the progress — or lack thereof — on AFSA’s “wish list” of priority items, which we submitted to the director general in July 2006. Our list, intended to help bring the Foreign Service into the 21st century, included sensible changes in personnel poli- cies, procedures and regulations. We sought to address our members’ fairness and equity concerns and to attend to the needs of FS families serving abroad in an increasingly diffi- cult and dangerous world. Drawing on opinions expressed by the 5,000 Foreign Serv- ice members who responded toAFSA’s worldwide survey last fall, let us review the progress made thus far on the 2006 wish list. 1. Apply Open Assignment rules fairly to end preferred treatment of bureaus’ favored insider candidates. Status: While the DG and HR/CDA now ensure better treatment of those coming out of war-zone postings, the vast majority of our members still perceive an assignment system driven by cronyism and insider-trading. 2. Address concerns about security and effectiveness of Iraq Provincial Reconstruction Team s. Status: The department has come a long way towards providing bidders with a detailed, honest accounting of con- ditions at PRTs—but there has been little serious discussion of the implications of U.S. military redeployment on the fu- ture security, effectiveness and feasibility of PRTs. 3. Facilitate overseas employment of spouses/partners. Status: Our members welcome initiatives such as the Ex- panded Professional Associates Program, but family mem- bers’ ability to find meaningful employment overseas remains stymied by bureaucratic rigidity, tight budgets and a lack of available positions. 4. Increase promotion numbers and reduce the unrealisti- cally high mandatory 5-percent low ranking. Status: Employees still feel that promotions are slow, un- fairly tied to hardship service, and too dependent on super- visors’ EER-writing abilities. No effort has been made to address the 5-percent low ranking requirement. 5. Create a State Department support structure for families separated by unaccompanied tours, along the lines of the U.S. military. Status: Other than a small, token increase in the Separate Maintenance Allowance and some outreach activities by the Family LiaisonOffice, State has done little. TheDepartment of Defense continues to put us to shame. 6. Provide recognition and benefits to domestic partners of Foreign Service members assigned overseas. Status: The outgoing administration’s hostility to same- sex couples and insistence on broad applicability of the De- fense of Marriage Act have precluded any progress in this area. 7. Expedite fair, transparent handling of security clearance suspension cases. Status: The Bureau of Diplomatic Security has recently moved onmany cases of security clearances that have been in limbo for as long as four or five years, but others remain un- resolved. Our members still perceive that toomuch power is invested in DS as accuser, investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury. 8. Create more humane maternity/paternity policies for Foreign Service members assigned overseas. Status: Medieval U.S. laws limitingmaternity leave for fed- eral employees have blocked efforts to address the unique problems facing Foreign Service families overseas. Female FS employees who become pregnant are still forced to ex- haust their annual and sick leave — and often to go on leave without pay —during the mandatory three-month evacua- tion for childbirth. 9. Rewrite the outdated, unclear and sometimes contradic- tory rules on reporting foreign contacts. Status: DS and HR, working collaboratively with AFSA, accomplished this long-overdue task this year. 10. Liberalize antiquated overseas housing requirements. Status: Most of the 1960s-era regulations that tie the hands of overseas posts on housing decisions remain in place. 11. Revolutionize technology in the workplace. Status: State has advanced in the welcome direction of making OpenNet Everywhere more accessible to Foreign Service employees and expanding availability/use of wireless devices. 12. Ease the burden of declining per diem for long-term training. Status: The department’s Cost-Effective Lodging Initia- tive has helped our members avoid going out of pocket on lodging costs. 13. Allow reimbursement of the costs of transporting and quarantining pets. Status: No significant change. Finally, AFSA urged that the department honor the expe- rience and expertise of its career diplomats and restore to them a pre-eminent role in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy. We leave it to our members and readers to reach their own conclusions about progress on this point. A Mixed Report Card J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 57 A F S A N E W S V.P. VOICE: STATE BY STEVE KASHKETT