The Foreign Service Journal, January 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY 2013 35 n The U.S. Agency for International Development should recruit, as needed and on a targeted basis, experienced personnel, including retired officers, to address shortages of mid-career officers. n USAID should seek streamlined hiring authorities to rationalize the unnecessarily convoluted methods currently employed. n Congress should appropriate the department’s 2013 budget request for full staffing of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization, along with a flexible hiring authority and dedi- cated funding proposed by the department to increase the effectiveness and agility of the CSO’s new model. If there is no regular budget for 2013, CSO should pursue this goal in FY 2014. n The Department of State should task CSO to make rec- ommendations on how to respond to civilian surge scenarios that exceed planned CSO capabilities, now that the creation of a large “surge capability” is no longer planned. This study should include, inter alia, the functioning of the current 3161 authority (for temporary hires); assess whether additional standby authority is needed; identify potential changes in con- tracting authority or spending flexibility for a large surge; and evaluate the potential for maintaining a larger roster of skills in the civilian sector. n Over the past four years, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has made important, if uneven, progress in dealing with these human resource problems.