The Foreign Service Journal, May 2005

I dedicate this column,my last, to some parting thoughts on the one major issue that seemed to color everything Bill Crawford and I worked on these last two years — that is, why, after 25 years, the ForeignService still has notmade a dis- cernible impact at Commerce. Why is it that the 230-plus FCS officers (including 40 in the Senior Foreign Service), representing the department’s greatest resource in terms of expertise onoverseasmarkets, have no real opportunity to serve inprogramandpol- icy positions inWashington as is the case in the other foreign affairs agencies? Our work on membership issues has made it clear that the Foreign Service has yet to find a comfortable co-existence with the Civil Service culture of the Commerce Department and its International TradeAdministration. For example, as Iwrite in early March, the Senior Foreign Service at Commerce/ITA are the only senior executives in the entire U.S. government that were not given a January 2005 salary adjustment. No reason given. Last year, all foreignaffairs agencies exceptCommerce adjusted SFS pay inApril, whileCommerce delayed adjustment until June. Again, no reason given. Most tellingwas thewillingness of Commerce to let the Office of Foreign Service Human Resources shrink to 11 staff, down from an already lean con- tingent of 19. This occurred despite the fact that Foreign Service personnel (including FSNs) total around 1,200, roughly the same size as the Civil Service component of Commerce/ITA. Yet they have a Human Resources office well over twice the size of ours, with more senior-graded positions. Why hasn’t the Foreign Service had an impact? I have found that CSmanagement cares about our issues and expresses genuine commitments to fix problems. In the end, though, the officials that care the most appear not to be authorized to resolve prob- lems, while officials with the responsibility are the most removed from direct contact with Foreign Service personnel. Also important is the fact that there are only about six Foreign Service officers in Washington in administrative support positions, with the rest of the FSOs overseas. (The vastmajority of Commerce’s ForeignService are excep- tional ForeignServiceNational employees.) One consequence of this neglect is the lack of a human-resource strategy looking to the future. While our budget has more than doubled since themid-1990s, thenumber of ForeignService employees has stayed rough- ly the same, with administrative overhead increasing to at least a crushing 25 percent of the budget. What to do? Management should be applauded for recently taking steps to reform the Human Resources Office and to initiate a process to reduce overhead and address work-force planning issues. Most needed is a Secretarial delegation of authority to the director general of USFCS tomanage the Foreign Service personnel systemdirectly, as has been done at Agriculture. There could be further efficiencies in contracting select- ed Foreign Service functions to a larger foreign affairs agency like USAID or State. A way forwarddoes exist, and I urge the newAFSA/FCS teamtowork closelywithCS/ITA management to resolve this long-standing problem. ▫ V.P. VOICE: FCS ■ BY CHARLES A. FORD Final Thoughts on the Foreign Service at the Commerce Department 4 AFSA NEWS • MAY 2005 Join the Journal ’s Editorial Board! Active and retired Foreign Service employees (both generalists and spe- cialists) from all foreign affairs agen- cies are invited to nominate them- selves or colleagues for a two-year term on the Foreign Service Journal Editorial Board beginning in September. Because of normal turnover and moves abroad, the Board seeks to fill several vacancies this year. Editorial Board members, who are appointed by the AFSA Governing Board, set the gen- eral editorial direc- tion of the Journal , in consultation with the editorial staff. Meeting monthly at AFSA HQ (over a free lunch!), they evaluate submitted manuscripts, decide on future focus topics, and weigh in on other matters affecting the Journal ’s style, substance and process. Please note that board members must reside in the Washington area and be able to attend monthly mid- day meetings at AFSA throughout their tenure on the board. They should also be able to devote several hours a month to reading articles and considering other Journal -related matters. If interested, please get in touch by June 1 with FSJ editor Steve Honley (e-mail: honley@afsa.org), sen ding some information about yourself (or the colleague you are nominating) and explaining why you are interested in serving on the Board. For more information, you may also call (202) 944-5511, fax: (202) 338-8244, or write: Editorial Board Search, Foreign Service Journal, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C., 20037-2990. Why, after 25 years, has the Foreign Service still not made a discernible impact at Commerce?