The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2023

76 JULY-AUGUST 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL AFSA REPORT Outreach A FSA has focused on expanding outreach to new and nontraditional audiences who may not be familiar with the work of the U.S. Foreign Service.We reached audiences in 47 states across the U.S., and our reach keeps growing. We strengthened collaboration with strategic partners by chairing the Educational Outreach Roundtable group and inviting new organizations with similar mandates into the group, including the Institute for the Study of Diplo- macy at Georgetown University and The Elliott School of International Affairs at The GeorgeWashington University. Advocacy on the Hill T he 2021-2023 Governing Board term pre- sented AFSA ample opportunity to push the organization’s advocacy priorities through annual legislative vehicles, resulting in historic progress regarding parity with the military for the Foreign Service. AFSA also established a policy analyst position to oversee AFSA engagement on state- and local-level legislative initiatives, expanding the footprint of the organization’s advocacy work. First and foremost, AFSA continued to defend the International Affairs Budget (IAB), which saw its most significant increase in about six years. From FY22 to FY23, the IAB increased by 6 percent, and operational accounts for foreign affairs agencies all increased above the previous year. During this period, AFSA’s Governing Board, in col- laboration with the Advocacy and Professional Policy Issues team, created a formal list of reform priorities in response to calls from the administration and Congress for modernization of the foreign affairs agencies. In 2021 AFSA helped craft and advocate passage of the Foreign Service Families Act, the most significant piece of military parity legislation the Foreign Service has seen become law. The Foreign Service Families Act grants parity in two important areas: It extends provisions from the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act that allow members of the Foreign Service given diplomatic orders to serve overseas the ability to break a residential, vehicle, or cell phone contract without penalty. The law also ensures an in-state tuition rate in one’s state of domicile at public institutions of higher education for members of the Foreign Service, their spouses, and dependents. During this board term, AFSA also saw Congress pass its first comprehensive State Department Authorization Act in nearly two decades. This law addressed assign- ment restrictions by ensuring that State Department employees subjected to an assignment restriction or preclusion have the same appeal rights as those expe- riencing denial or revocation of a security clearance, which should be resolved 60 days after the appeal is filed. The State Authorization also included a report to Congress analyzing the effect of overseas allowances and compensation on the assignment of FSOs. AFSA hopes the final report will help build support for the third and final tranche of overseas comparability pay (OCP). In 2022 Congress saw merit in continuing the trend of passing State Authorization bills, and again provided AFSA with a legislative vehicle for other Foreign Service reforms. The State Department Authorization Act of 2022 provides members of the Civil Service on domestic employees teleworking overseas (DETO) agreements at least OCP or two-thirds of D.C. locality pay. Prior to this change, members of the Civil Service (many of them Foreign Service family members) on DETOs received no locality pay and took a significant pay cut to work overseas alongside their families. The 2022 Authorization Act also establishes a mechanism for third parties to verify the employment of, and the validity of permanent change of station orders received by, members of the Foreign Service in a manner that protects sensitive employee information. As we near the end of this board term, Congress has called for another State Authorization Act—for the third year in a row. AFSA will continue to encourage regular authorization for the foreign affairs agencies, while facing the advocacy challenges associated with divided government, in the 118th Congress.