The Foreign Service Journal, April 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | APRIL 2015 75 Some Good News President Barack Obama’s Fiscal Year 2016 budget request came on Feb. 2. In place of grand schemes to double its staffing over the next five years we now have a proposal for a modest, nine- officer SelectUSA foreign direct investment increase, plus “adjustments to base.” The latter initiative is designed to do a variety of things: paying the full-year cost of prior-year increases (or decreases); taking into account built-in, “sunset” or no-new-program changes to our budget; and fund- ing operations at last year’s inflation-adjusted level. If all goes well, CS/ Global Markets won’t exactly starve; it is still “digesting” its FY 2015 increases for new officers and offices in Africa and Asia, plus additional SelectUSA spending. All in all, it’s a good budget for austere times, one that will allow us to replace retiring officers and perhaps even grow a little. This year, we have two new House and Senate Appropriations Subcom- mittee chairs (the folks who control our budget) whom we need to cultivate and educate. Thankfully, the staff working for these commit- tees has not changed radi- cally, so we have that going for us. AFSA has your back. We have already reached out to the new Congress and com- mittee staff, and will have more to report in the weeks and months ahead. Congratulations, Ambassador Allen! On Jan. 27, AFSA and the Commercial Service feted Craig Allen’s ambassadorial appointment to Brunei. Craig is only the fourth ambassa- dor to come out of the Com- mercial Service in its 35-year history. As Commerce’s deputy secretary, under secretary and deputy director general noted at the reception, this position requires someone skilled both at trade promo- tion and trade policy. Before he left, Craig had kind words and advice to those junior commercial officers who might aspire to be an ambas- sador one day. Craig was formally sworn in on Jan. 30 in the State Department’s stately Ben Franklin Diplomatic Recep- tion Room. Then he and his family said their goodbyes to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker before heading off to post. On arrival, he sent her this message: “Thanks for organizing and hosting the party in 3407 last week.” He added, “Thanks very much for supporting me in this immensely long and complicated process. AFSA’s and your personal support were instrumental every step of the way.” n LOOK FOR YOUR BAL LOT: VOTE I N THE AFSA GOVERN I NG BOARD ELECT I ON The 2015 elections of AFSA officers and constituency representatives is under- way. Details about the election, including the rules, can be found at www.afsa. org/elections. Candidates’ campaign literature, along with a ballot, will be made available to members on the AFSA website. Campaigning through employer email by any member is prohibited (with the exception of the three pre-approved candidate email blasts). Ballots: Ballots will be distributed on or about April 15 by email if you have a valid email address on file with AFSA, or by printed ballot via the U.S. Postal Ser- vice. If you do not receive a ballot by May 6, please contact election@afsa.org. Ballot Tally: On June 4, at 9 a.m. EDT, the printed ballots will be picked up from the post office in Washington, D.C. Printed ballots must be received at the post office to be counted. Online voting will also be available until June 4, at 8 a.m. EDT, when the voting site will close. Election Information: Written requests for a duplicate ballot should be directed to election@afsa.org or sent to AFSA Committee on Elections, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037. Please include your full name, current address, email address and telephone number. n FCS VP VOICE | BY STEVE MORRISON AFSA NEWS Views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the AFSA FCS VP. Contact: steve.morrison@trade.gov or (202) 482-9088