52 SEPTEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL potential of our workforce while upholding the highest standards of security,” according to a report in The Washington Post. Unfortunately, this policy decision did not end the process of assignment reviews (aka pass-throughs) nor did it provide employees with an independent appeals mechanism for the assignment reviews. AAFAA and AFSA’s sustained decade-long advocacy and congressional action led to major policy discussions, an internal audit, and a reduction in the number of active assignment restrictions from more than 2,000 in 2020 to 636 in 2023, potentially freeing up almost 10 percent of the diplomatic workforce to redeploy around the world. As State wound down its use of new assignment restrictions, however, AAFAA received reports that members were increasingly being held up in the pass-through process, which had been retained. In 2010, according to the 2011 OIG report on the DS Office of Investigations and Counterintelligence, three of 700 employees had failed pass-through; by contrast, according to a Nov. 21, 2023, letter from the under secretary of management, in 2022 nine of 391 failed. AAFAA held firm in its belief that the 2016 legislation required State to institute the appeals process for pass-throughs as well. As AFSA State vice president at the time, I negotiated the text with congressional staff to ensure the appeal rights would apply to any type of assignment restriction. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends a virtual roundtable with the Asian American Foreign Affairs Association, moderated by AAFAA President Shirlene Yee (at left), at the State Department in July 2021. FSO Joshua Shen received the State Department’s 2022 Edward J. Perkins Memorial Award for Outstanding Leadership in Diversity and Inclusion for his advocacy work on assignment restriction and pass-through reforms. Here, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley personally presents him with the award during a trip to Jakarta in 2023. COURTESY OF STATE MAGAZINE COURTESY OF JOSHUA SHEN
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