The Foreign Service Journal, January 2011

I t was in 1996, his first year of grad- uate school at Southern University, when Stacy Williams met Russell Taylor. “If you’re interested in an exciting career, the State Department is where you should be,”Taylor, a recruiter vis- iting the Baton Rouge, La., campus, toldWilliams. Williams had never given much thought to the State Department. The plan had been to become a law- yer. Plus, working overseas had al- ways seemed to him to be the mili- tary’s domain. The idea of embass- ies and diplomats intriguedWilliams, though, and so he took Taylor’s advice to apply for an intern- ship. Now executive secretary in the Of- fice of the Haiti Special Coordinator and vice president of the Thursday Luncheon Group, Williams knows a thing or two about international af- fairs. And this year he celebrates his 15th anniversary of working for the Department of State, starting first as an AFSA-TLG intern. Williams came to Washington, D.C., excited to learn about the For- eign Service through his placement in Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Tal- bott’s office, where he assisted the speechwriter. But beyond his job du- ties, Williams learned what it was like to work in Washington, which seemed to the Shreveport, La., native like the center of the world. T he midterm elections are now behind us and the lead- ership changes for both the majority and the minority in the House of Representatives are now settled. I think it is time for a little prognostication and constituency-sound- ing. Your comments on the following ideas are solicited. I see a period of serious fiscal restraint ahead. For an in- stitution like the State Department, which has little in the way of domestic constituency other than FS retirees, it will be an especially difficult period. The serious commitment of Sec- retary of State Hillary RodhamClinton and theWhite House to strengthening our diplomacy and reinvigorating the For- eign Service with new officers and enhanced training will be in peril. With little in the way of discretionary spending to at- tack, the State and USAID budgets will be especially vulner- able. Dramatically compounding the problem are the funding requirements for our presence in Iraq after the expected end of our formal military engagement next year. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security is being called on to formwhat amounts to a mini-Army and Air Force to protect our State Depart- ment personnel. The cost will be in the billions, and while I doubt Congress would deny“force protection” for our diplo- mats, they will play the old fungibility game and bleed the necessary appropriations out of other parts of the State budget. Promising targets for the Hill carving knife are the intake of new of- ficers and training. From the retiree perspective, I don’t see a serious threat to our pension benefits; tinkering with the system would affect our elected representatives. Many Foreign Service retirees don’t have Social Security ben- efits. But those who do, increasingly the younger ones, should be concerned about the prospect of means testing, and, in most cases, a reduction in payments. Similarly, an effort by the new Congress to apply the brake on the increasing costs of Medicare entitlements could result in a means-testing re- duction of benefits for upper-income retirees. Defending our earned pension and health care benefits will remain our number-one retiree objective. Lifting the cap on hours and pay forWhen Actually Employed employees is a close second. A more liberal, transparent and creative use of our retiree talent would go a long way to relieving the lack of mid-level officers in the department and help avert pro- posals for a new mid-level entry program into the Foreign Service. In contrast to such a program, intelligent use of the WAE mechanism can save money, provide critical mentor- ing for new entry-level officers and foster professionalism in the Foreign Service. ❏ 52 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 1 1 A F S A N E W S V.P. VOICE: RETIREE ■ BY ROBERT G. HOUDEK What’s Ahead in 2011 Thursday Luncheon Group VP Celebrates 15th Anniversary at State BY AMY MCKEEVER Stacy Williams, vice president of the Thursday Luncheon Group and executive secretary in the Office of the Haiti Spe- cial Coordinator, celebrates his 15th anniversary of joining State as an AFSA/TLG intern this year. AMY MCKEEVER