12 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS Bill to Protect Diplomatic Workforce O n July 16, Rep. Ami Bera, MD (D-Calif.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, introduced the Protecting America’s Diplomatic Workforce Act, legislation intended to shield employees at the State Department and other foreign affairs agencies from unjustified reductions in force (RIFs). This bill is one of many introduced in recent weeks that support the work and careers of the Foreign Service. The legislation comes one year after more than 1,350 Civil and Foreign Service employees were terminated from the department, dismissals Bera said lacked adequate transparency and justification. The bill would require that future workforce reductions be based on merit, subject to congressional oversight, and evaluated for their effect on U.S. diplomatic presence. AFSA President John Dinkelman said the legislation would restore transparency and fairness to the Foreign Service RIF process, reverse changes made unilaterally by the administration in 2025, codify long-standing RIF procedures, restore worldwide competition, and eliminate the practice of treating individual offices as separate competitive areas. The bill would apply to the State Department, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the Peace Corps, the Foreign Agricultural Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Foreign Commercial Service, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media and its networks. Original co-sponsors are Representatives Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.), Sarah McBride (D-Del.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.). The House bill follows companion legislation introduced in the Senate on July 1, 2025, by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), along with Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). That bill would require agencies to justify any RIF affecting more than 50 employees, base FSO RIF decisions primarily on performance and prior selection board rankings, close loopholes that shorten required notice periods, and mandate 30 days’ advance notice to Congress before making changes to the Foreign Affairs Manual. AFSA has endorsed the Senate legislation. New Commission to Chart Future of U.S. Foreign Assistance The Rockefeller Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation announced on July 14 the launch of the Commission on the Future of Foreign Assistance, a bipartisan, 10-member body tasked with developing a blueprint for a more effective and accountable U.S. foreign aid system, to be released in 2027. The commission is co-chaired by former South Carolina Governor David Beasley (R) and former Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (D) and includes former members of Congress and senior officials from both parties. The American Enterprise Institute and the Brookings Institution will support its research. The launch comes one year after USAID’s closure amid new polling commissioned by Rockefeller showing that eight in 10 Americans favor reforming, rather than eliminating, foreign assistance. Digital Exploitation in New Africa Agreements Following the dismantling of USAID in 2025, the State Department has pursued a series of bilateral health agreements with African nations that condition U.S. assistance on access to health data, biological specimens, or mineral resources. U.S. officials describe this as part of an “America First” global health When J.F.K. argued for USAID, he was arguing that assistance abroad, first and foremost, was also assistance to the United States itself. One of the direct benefits to the United States was eradicating polio in the world, eradicating outbreaks. We were the driver of eradicating smallpox. ... This was rooted in the Marshall Plan: the idea that, instead of pillaging the world around us as other nations were defeated in war or weakened, we would invest—invest in their liberty, invest in their economic capacity, invest in their survival. —Atul Gawande, in a July 12 “New Yorker Radio Hour” interview with David Remnick, “The Human Cost of DOGE’s War on USAID.” Contemporary Quote
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