The Foreign Service Journal, May 2009

16 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / M A Y 2 0 0 9 couldn’t be more needed. With that in mind, both commercial officers and agricultural officers serving overseas are hoping that they will soon be hearing a lot more from the Obama administration about invest- ing in what they do. “If there was ever a time to invest in promoting U.S. exports, today is it,” says Nicholas Kuchova, a senior com- mercial officer assigned to Panama and 12-year veteran of the Commercial Service. It would be a welcome change. For years, both FAS and FCS have received budget increases inadequate to maintain their services, let alone expand them. Congress’s decision last year to hold off on a new budget until 2009 pushed both to the brink. In January, then-FAS Administrator Mike Yost in- formed officers that the Foreign Agricultural Service was facing a $9 million budget shortfall that would force a travel freeze and could mean furloughs. The Service has also pared back training and discretionary spending at overseas offices. It’s hurt morale. “The budget issue is the elephant in the room,” says Henry Schmick, vice pres- ident for the Foreign Agricultural Service at the American Foreign Service Association. In February, the Commercial Service, facing a $25 mil- lion deficit, ordered all posts to surrender trust funds they’d established to supplement their appropriations from Congress and also froze hiring, international travel, nonessential domestic travel, overtime, training, technol- ogy upgrades and even purchases of office supplies. “The cuts have long ago gone beyond fat and cut into bone,” says one Commercial Service veteran stationed in Central America. The February dictate meant that for even the simplest things — hosting a reception for a vis- iting delegation of business executives or traveling to a trade show — officers would have to count every penny. The squeeze was alleviated somewhat when Congress passed a new spending bill in March, but officers say that much more funding is still needed. Cut to the Bone At the Foreign Agricultural Service, the budget has been stalled at Fiscal Year 2006 levels, about $150 million, for the last four years. Meanwhile, the Service has faced rapidly increased expenses related to shared embassy costs and embassy construction, along with exchange rate losses. The agency has managed to get by, but it has not been able to ex- pand — a keen frustration for its officers, who have seen the good their work does. Over the last decade, the agency’s staffing has fluctuated between 772 in 1998 and 884 in 2004, with overseas staff ranging from 106 in 2000 to 123 in 2007. One agricultural officer, speaking on condition of anonymity from his South American post, said that thanks to the budget cuts, he would not be able to bring foreign executives to U.S. trade shows. Judging by past experi- ence, the savings of $10,000 will cost U.S. exporters at least $3 million in new sales, he said. “We’re a small agency and we could feast on other peo- ple’s table scraps, but that also means that you get forgot- ten a little bit,” the officer said. “Is it a matter of priorities, or is it that we are a small agency in a big bureaucracy, in which rounding down to the nearest 10 million instead of up has an enormous impact on us?” The International Trade Administration, of which the Commercial Service is part, hasn’t fared much better. Its 2009 budget of $425 million is just 5 percent more than in 2006. The increase has been barely enough to maintain F O C U S In 2008, the Foreign Agricultural Service influenced $20 billion in U.S. agricultural exports through its trade promotions efforts. Shawn Zeller, a Washington writer, is a regular contribu- tor to the Journal . FCS: A Quick Note on Nomenclature During the 20th century, the U.S. government’s for- eign commerce function switched several times between the Departments of State and Commerce. In 1980, it moved again to Commerce, where it was named the Foreign Commercial Service. The next year it was re- named the U.S. & Foreign Commercial Service, which referred to the combined domestic and international or- ganization. That is still the full and proper name of the service, but the abbreviated “Commercial Service” is heard far more often. Though the term “Foreign Com- mercial Service” is frequently used, particularly within the FS community, it does not officially exist. — The Editors