The Foreign Service Journal, January 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY 2013 17 Service to wither, Secretaries of State have successfully gone to the White House and Congress to win substantial new resources—including a thousand new officers. As that example demon- strates, the State Department plays in Washington’s biggest leagues and attracts first-rate talent to its top political ranks. The Commerce Department, by contrast, is a “house of brands”: a federal conglomerate whose budget trades off promoting exports and inbound invest- ment with hand-held devices for census data-gathering or new weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmo- spheric Administration. Even though Pres. Obama has requested substantial funding increases for it, the Commercial Service, buried under layers of bureau- cracy, still lacks visibility and champions. Second, in a move to the State Department, commercial officers could compete for excellent career opportuni- ties now effectively out of reach—not only principal officer positions but also rotational assignments to Capitol Hill, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representa- tive, the National Security Council and universities. Third, State has a Foreign Service culture that is closer to ours than the Civil Service culture of the International Trade Administration, where we often struggle to explain the demands of international operations and the nature of the work we With the end of the ColdWar, economic security became sexy, and State recognized it needed the U.S. business community as a powerful domestic constituency. do overseas. Finally, moving to State would be risky. But so is remaining in ITA, where a proposed reorganization could well morph the FCS from a field-driven, client-focused trade promotion culture into a more headquarters-driven, policy- centric culture. This structural change could distance us from our clients and undermine the entrepreneurial culture that is our greatest source of strength. Pluses for State But how would a merger with FCS benefit State? The new reality on Capitol Hill and at the White House is job cre- ation. State wants to acquire the U.S. business community as a constituency, and therefore must make support for American business part of its mission. Either State acquires the talent and expertise needed, or it tries to build its own commercial function. The latter option is much more diffi- cult than it may seem. First, the Commer- cial Service has turned a corner under the leadership of Acting Director General Charles Ford. Substantial improvements have been made to address the criticisms of a recent Government Accountability Office report, and Congress has pro- vided small but encouraging increases to our base that have started to revive us. Furthermore, FCS officers and staff, like proud athletes, have proved remark-