THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER 2024 61 Transition Anxiety July 2024. Sitting in a hotel room while the U.S. swelters, looking to escape the noise, I find it hard not to be drawn into the never-ending news cycle and speculation about November. I have had more chats, emails, and calls with family and friends in the past few weeks than I can count. They worry about the future. The inevitable question: What are you going to do if …? What am I going to do if …? As Foreign Service officers and U.S. government employees, we have a choice that’s binary: (1) Continue to do the job we were hired to do to the best of our ability and at the highest level of quality and integrity, or (2) Retire/resign. There is no gray area here, there is no work to rule, keep your head down, or slow roll. Regardless of where we serve, our job is to implement the foreign and development policy outlined by the White House and funded by Congress. That includes utilizing the breadth and depth of our experience and knowledge to engage with political leadership in constructive dialogue and dissent. If you or I reach a point of personal exhaustion, and are no longer able to do our jobs, then we must choose option 2. Most who choose to resign or retire do so in private, but some choose to make their decision more public, and that choice, too, is theirs and set by their values. Change at the Top Since I joined USAID in 2004, we have had 12 Administrators—seven confirmed and five acting. That’s one every 1.6 years. Each of these transitions, coupled with four presidential transitions, brought anxiety, angst, and uncertainty. With each shift at the top, the infrastructure below it, career Civil and Foreign Service staff bent, flexed, strained, expanded, contracted, and in the end, they remained—all while successfully implementing the policies and programs that defined each president and Administrator, regardless of political affiliation. This is our core! Our power! We get things done! For the 395 Foreign Service officers and 407 Foreign Service Limited employees who joined since 2021, welcome aboard the transition rollercoaster. Please ensure your seat belt is fastened and keep your arms and legs inside at all times! The ride will end. Transition Plans With two months left in the election cycle, USAID has established a transition team to begin drafting a set of strategy, policy, and budget briefers and has convened working groups. Posts, bureaus, and independent offices may be strategizing various scenarios, and many of you are likely doing the same ahead of the 2025 general assignment cycle. What will the transition bring? Status quo, or change? For better or worse, we have a basic understanding of each. The change is what keeps some up at night. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 lays out proposed changes for a next conservative president. You can read it online: Chapter 3 details the institutionalization of Schedule F, expansion of political appointments, creation of new “special” hiring categories, limitation or elimination of access to unions, and alteration of the merit promotions system. Chapter 9 outlines a new vision for USAID: eliminate gender programming, limit humanitarian assistance, change the focus of our health portfolio, and increase the number of political appointees. Some of this takes us back to 2017-2021, while some goes further. Regardless of what will be implemented, knowing what the future may bring helps us all prepare for that transition as we consider our options. AFSA’s Plans What is AFSA doing about it? For 100 years, AFSA has been and will remain a nonpartisan organization. But we will continue to engage with other federal unions to support and defend our collective bargaining units. This past June, AFSA joined more than 20 other federal employee associations advocating legislative changes to permanently limit Schedule F and protect the career Service. Further, we continue to push for reforms in the nomination process for career FS officers to senior leadership positions and limits to the number of political appointees; engage with USAID leadership to strengthen merit promotion, programs for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and the assignment process; and consistently communicate the importance of the professional Foreign Service in implementing U.S. policy, regardless of party. Throughout this period, I will be engaging with, promoting, and, when necessary, defending the USAID Foreign Service corps. Option 2 is available, but it is not my future. n USAID VP VOICE | BY RANDY CHESTER AFSA NEWS Contact: chester@afsa.org | (202) 712-5267 Regardless of where we serve, our job is to implement the foreign and development policy outlined by the White House and funded by Congress.
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