48 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL FEATURE Matthew Asada served as AFSA State vice president from 2013 to 2015 and as president of the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association (AAFAA) from 2018 to 2019. He joined the Foreign Service in 2003 and most recently served as a visiting senior fellow at the University of Southern California, where he taught and researched public diplomacy with a particular focus on global mega events. This article reflects the author’s personal views and not necessarily those of AFSA, AAFAA, or the Department of State. A central participant recounts high points of a successful reform effort at State. BY MATTHEW ASADA A Decade-Long Campaign to Reform Assignment Restriction Programs Assignment restrictions are conditions placed on an employee’s security clearance prohibiting the employee from working in a specific country or a portfolio related to a specific country. Assignment preclusions are personnel actions limiting employees from working in specific countries due to issues of privileges and immunities, often linked with an employee’s actual or potential claim to dual citizenship (3 FAM 2424.5). Assignment reviews are assessments regarding an employee’s suitability for an assignment to a critical human intelligence threat post. For more than two decades, the assignment restriction, assignment preclusion, and assignment review (also known as “passthrough”) programs have degraded our diplomacy and prevented more than 2,000 colleagues from working in or on certain countries. For the past decade, AFSA, together with the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association (AAFAA) and other employee organizations, has waged a campaign to reform these programs. As a result, in May 2024, the Department of State announced new AFSA-negotiated regulations implementing Section 6110 of the Department of State Authorization Act of 2023, which included the third piece of a solution to this problem and established a new employee right.
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