The Foreign Service Journal, May 2009

M A Y 2 0 0 9 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 47 C hairwoman Lowey, the American Foreign Service Association is grateful for your leadership in ad- dressing the enormous staffing gaps in the U.S. Foreign Service. Thanks to your advocacy, accompanied by the sup- port of other members of this subcom- mittee, Foreign Service hiring at State and USAID is finally on the upswing after years of flat funding during which new mission requirements vastly out- stripped staff resources. AFSA under- stands that funding provided by Congress in the 2008 supplemental ap- propriation and Fiscal Year 2009 budget will add about 640 additional “core” State diplomatic personnel and 450 new USAID development officers by this September. Obviously, that is very good news. So, too, is the Obama administration’s recently released Fiscal Year 2010 budget request which, without giving details, states that it “includes funding for the first year of a multiyear effort to signifi- cantly increase the size of the Foreign Service at both the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development.” Continued expansion is desperately needed. A blue-ribbon panel report is- sued last October by the American Academy of Diplomacy documented the need for 2,848 additional State posi- tions for core diplomatic functions and a training complement, as well as for 1,250 additional USAID positions, by Fiscal Year 2014. To achieve that goal will require adding an average of 450 new positions at State and 160 new po- sitions at USAID each year for the next five years. Moreover, those Foreign Service hir- ing targets were based on a 2008 snap- shot of unmet needs that may grow even larger in the coming years as the Obama administration undertakes new foreign policy initiatives— for example, increasing civilian staffing in Afghani- stan. In addition, AFSA sees a strong case for expanding the Foreign Com- mercial Service and the Foreign Agri- cultural Service. In our March 20 meeting, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stressed to me her conviction that diplomacy and de- velopment are essential tools in achiev- ing our nation’s long-term objectives. She pledged to continue to lobby hard to significantly expand Foreign Service staffing. But she also noted that the fed- eral government is likely to face difficult budgetary choices in the next few years. President Obama and Congress un- doubtedly have tough choices in decid- ing how to allocate budget resources. But as they do, AFSA urges them to be mindful of the fact that adding 4,000 positions to our 13,000-member For- eign Service would have a far greater positive impact on national security than would adding the same number of positions to our 1.4 million-member active-duty military (which is currently undergoing a 92,000-position expan- sion). Many members of Congress un- derstand this. The same is true for Sec- retary of Defense Robert Gates, who has given a series of high-profile speeches over the past 18 months urging that more resources be devoted to funding the civilian element of national security. So it is vital for the president and Congress to stay the course on efforts to expand the Foreign Service. They must not declare “victory” after just a few years of above-attrition hiring which, at best, would only serve to fill existing staffing gaps. Instead, lawmakers also need to fund the creation of a robust training com- plement to allow Foreign Service mem- bers to attain advanced levels of foreign-language fluency, area knowl- edge, leadership and management abil- ity, program management skills and job-specific functional expertise. Future budgets must also create more positions for Foreign Service members to take ro- tational assignments with other agencies in order tomaintain our lead role in for- eign policy coordination. Future bud- gets must give our foreign affairs agen- cies the “bench strength” with which to staff up the new contingencies that will inevitably arise in the coming years. Thus, the task for the Obama ad- ministration and Congress over the next four years is to continue to strengthen the personnel and physical platform from which diplomacy and develop- ment assistance are conducted. We must do more than simply fill existing staffing gaps. We must assure that the Foreign Service has the right number of people with the right skills and experi- ence tomeet the challenges of 21st-cen- tury diplomacy. These investments would yield significant benefits in ad- vancing the interests of the American people. ■ A F S A N E W S EXCERPTS FROM Testimony of John K. Naland PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION BEFORE THE House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y. March 26, 2009 It is vital for the president and Congress to stay the course on efforts to expand the Foreign Service. They must not declare “victory” after just a few years of above-attrition hiring which, at best, would only serve to fill existing staffing gaps.