The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

related issues at that time? JC: I was DG for about 16 months, from 1981 to 1983. As you can imag- ine, during that period implementing the Foreign Service Act of 1980 dom- inated the agenda. FSJ: And what was your final Foreign Service assignment? JC: I served as assistant secretary for consular affairs from 1983 to 1989. Resources are always a problem for everyone in the State Department, but Consular Affairs needed to find money to introduce machine-readable visas, as well as for the automation of all the passport agencies. The fees for consular services were always collect- ed by the Treasury Department, and when the federal budget came over to State, there was always this hassle about how much money each bureau would be allotted. I’ve always been a great believer in talking to people up on the Hill about our needs. As head of CA, I worked closely with the judiciary committees on the Hill, which I knew were con- cerned about border controls — an issue that’s still very much with us today, of course. At that time, we had an interesting system in this country: those holding foreign passports filled out the I-94 immigration form, which had two sections. As visitors entered our country, one section was collect- ed. However, there was no formal U.S. government passport control at a number of exit points to collect the second section of the form upon their departure. As a result, upon their arrival in their home countries, some conscientious tourists would send the second part of the form to our embassies. We, in turn, would send them to the INS. As further insurance against visa fraud, my bureau decided to move to machine-readable visas. I assigned one of the consular officers, who was a whiz with computers, to work with others to develop a proposal. We took that plan up to the Hill and got them to earmark $4 million for CA to imple- ment it. FSJ: I’m guessing your colleagues around the department weren’t too thrilled with that! JC: Yes, especially H (the legisla- tive affairs folks) and M (the manage- ment bureau). Someone called me up to say they were going to take the money away, and I said, “I think you better check the legislation.” J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 “I’ve always been a great believer in talking to people up on the Hill about our needs.”