The Foreign Service Journal, April 2009

L ost in thought as I crawled in traffic behind a D.C. city bus, my eyes came to rest on an advertisement plastered across its back panel: “Laws can change. So can your pension. Join the National Association of Retired Federal Em- ployees.” As the words sunk in, I snapped out of my reverie. The point was clear: we need to be reminded of just how vulnerable retirement benefits could become in these tough economic times. While I do not believe pensions will be significantly affected, I do think other benefits might come under pressure as our government looks for ways to trim costs. When I talk to the roughly 7,000 Foreign Service annuitants who are not AFSA members, I explain that AFSA is the only organization devoted to looking after the benefits and rights of Foreign Service members and their families, and that its strength flows from numbers. This is what impels AFSA to work with or- ganizations like NARFE, the Military Officers Association of America, and a fed- eration of dozens of similar organizations known as the FAIR Coalition. By combining resources, we can stay abreast of legislative changes that might ad- versely affect member interests. Our objective is to protect members’ (and non- members’) backs by being alert to threats to retiree benefits, as well as to opportunities for improving those benefits. Incidentally, I just renewed my NARFE membership. In other retiree news,AFSA is proactively engaging with the State Department’s newmanagement. One retiree issue that has long been an AFSA priority is to re- move the restrictions on folks serving under the category of “While Actually Em- ployed,” to enable the State Department to use longer — and less disruptive — deployments of skilled and experienced Foreign Service retirees. We now hope to make real strides in removing the caps on hours and salaries, just as retired mili- tary officers have been able to do. Ideally, too, we hope to see administration of the WAE process centralized in a manner that will make it more equitable and transparent. Finally, I want to thank all of you who responded to my last column seeking ideas on how to reach the hundreds of Foreign Service annuitants who are not AFSA members. You may be assured that Hank Cohen, Janice Bay, David Pas- sage, Jonathan Sperling and I took your many suggestions and ideas into account as we honed our strategy for pursuing this elusive cohort of prospective mem- bers. 42 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / A P R I L 2 0 0 9 A F S A N E W S V.P. VOICE: RETIREE BY ROBERTW. “BILL” FARRAND Laws Can Change; So Can Your Benefits HERE COMES THE CAVALRY Re-employed Annuitants BY BONNIE BROWN, RETIREE COORDINATOR B ecause of salary and hours limita- tions, re-employed annuitants cannot be used effectively to re- duce the current shortfall in department personnel or to provide continuity dur- ing the period in which a hoped-for surge of newForeign Service personnel is identified and trained. As a result, department bureaus have turned increasingly to contractors who are not subject to these limitations—de- spite the fact that contractors cost twice as much as re-employed annuitants. The current Foreign Service, at 11,300members, is not adequate to carry out the department’s foreign policy functions. At present there is a 15-per- cent shortfall in needed mid-level per- sonnel in embassies and consulates abroad, as well as in the department. This shortfall will increase with expand- ing global responsibilities and challenges. The department’s permanent work force is augmented by about 1,300 to 1,500 re-employed annuitants (known as “While Actually Employed”) — over 10 percent of the total. Although WAEs have the training, skills and experience to step into posi- tions in the department and at posts abroad, the department is hobbled in its ability to use them. The Foreign Service Act limits the amount of salary a WAE may receive in a calendar year, and Civil Service provisions limit the number of hours a WAE may work in an appoint- ment year. This means that a typical re- employed annuitant can work no more than three to four months a year. In recent years, legislation has given the department authority on a case-by- case basis to waive one or both caps for certain purposes, such as passport pro- cessing and service in Iraq and Afghani- stan. However, the scope and duration of this authority have been limited. The National Defense Authorization Act of 2004 provides amodel for remov- AFSA is the only organization devoted to looking after the benefits and rights of Foreign Service members and their families, and its strength flows from numbers.