THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2024 25 There’s an issue with the portability of professional licenses that’s come up. There’s a childcare subsidy issue. There’s a series of additional benefits that we’re trying to put together to address some of these issues. Again, the foundation stone was the Foreign Service Families Act, but as issues come up, we try to identify ways we can be helpful, to show support for Foreign Service families and others who are part of our embassies and consulates overseas and the State Department here at home. FSJ: Can you say anything about the budget picture, and is there anything that AFSA should be doing to be helpful in advocating for an appropriate budget for the foreign affairs agencies? Sen. Van Hollen: My view is we need to be providing more resources to support the Foreign Service. We need to establish more consulates. My father, when he was ambassador to Sri Lanka, was also assigned to the Maldives. I’m glad to see we now have an ambassador to the Maldives. As you know, the Maldives is a pretty small country of far-flung islands, but it is of growing significance in the Indo-Pacific region. I think we need to be in more places like this, and we need to make sure we have a robust diplomacy budget to do this. We have a very robust defense budget, but we need to do more on the diplomacy and the development side. We are still operating under a two-year agreement that the Biden administration negotiated with the House Republicans. And that does create very real budget constraints that unfortunately are going to limit our capacity to do some of the things we should be doing in the area of diplomacy. But we will do our very best to allocate the resources available in a smart way. A group of us, years ago, set forward what we thought should be the architecture and funding for a foreign policy budget. It was significantly more robust than what’s available today. Again, growing up as part of the Foreign Service family, I’ve seen firsthand the benefits to our country of having a robust diplomatic presence and engagement. And that’s even more true today. Back at that time, we had a bipolar world. It was the United States and the Soviet Union, and we were competing. And now we’re competing for influence in a lot more places and with a lot more players. It’s going to be very important that we adequately resource our Foreign Service. n The Van Hollen family enjoys an audience with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike (center) on July 4, 1975. COURTESY OF CHRIS VAN HOLLEN A group of us, years ago, set forward what we thought should be the architecture and funding for a foreign policy budget. It was significantly more robust than what’s available today.
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