The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

60 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / NOV EMB E R 2 0 0 7 Support AFSA with Your CFC Gift Please consider sup- porting AFSA programs with your 2007 Com- bined Federal Campaign donation. The Scholarship Fund (#11759) provides grants to Foreign Service children to help pay for their college education (www.afsa.org/ scholar/CFC11759.cfm). The Fund for American Diplomacy (#10646) educates the public on the critical role of U.S. diplomacy in the world (www.afsa.org/CFCFAD.cfm ). Simply designate #11759 and/or #10646 on your CFC pledge card. State Department employees (active-duty or retired) can obtain a CFC pledge form or return their card to Shelly Kornegay in the Office of Employee Relations at (202) 261- 8166 or kornegaysv@state.gov . Contri- butions will be accepted through Dec. 14. Thank you in advance for your support. E-Classifieds on the Way Be on the lookout for a new addition to the AFSAWeb site. Coming soon and available exclusively to AFSAmembers are the all-new E-Classifieds , www.afsa.org/ classifieds/. Members will be able to post advertisements in a variety of specific cate- gories similar to those in our print version of classifieds within the AFSA News sec- tion of the Journal . For a limited time, all AFSAmembers can post ads for no charge. The benefits of electronic ads will be the rapid turnaround time to reach the Foreign Service community and beyond. Have an apartment to sublet; a house to sell; furniture to pass on? In lieu of posting a notice on the bulletin board in the Truman Building (we all know how con- venient that is!), AFSA is offering this pilot classifieds program as a service to mem- bers. As an added bonus, the option to insert a picture will be available. The basic interface is designed to be concise, effective and, hopefully, user-friendly. Contact FSJ Business Manager Andrew Kidd with questions (kidd@afsa.org ). Update on IRS Rule Change for Foreign Earned Income The April edition of AFSA News reported on a change in the calculation of the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion that allows U.S. citizens who are not government employees and who live outside the U.S. to exclude a significant portion of their foreign-source income for tax purposes. This change could increase the tax liability for some Foreign Service families. In order to help AFSA develop an advocacy approach and gauge the depth of the problem, President John Naland highlighted the issue in his Aug. 3 AFSAnet, and asked that members tell us if they have been affected by the changes. The response was strong and identi- fied an initial group of 50 members who have been affected and want to help work to reverse the new rule. AFSA then worked to connect members of this core group (representing 14 states) with their House and Senate members, and is now developing other ideas to raise the profile of this problem with Congress. If this rule will have an impact on your tax liability but you did not respond to the request earlier, please send an e-mail to Legislative Director Ian Houston at houston@afsa.org with details, including the names of your congressional rep- resentatives if possible. Baghdad, whichmay leave our members there evenmore vulner- able than they already are. Because OIG can only do its vital work if itmaintains independence, credibility andobjectivity, AFSAcon- cluded that the public interest requirednew leadership atOIGuntil the allegations have been resolved.” AFSA’s call for the IG to step down was reported in a Sept. 19 Associated Press article that was picked up by many newspapers nationwide. The text of the AFSA press release follows: State Dept. Inspector General Must Step Down WASHINGTON, D.C.: The president of theAmericanForeign ServiceAssociation today calledon embattledDepartment of State InspectorGeneralHoward J.Krongard to surrenderday-to-day con- trol of State’s vital Office of the Inspector General pending the res- olution of grave allegations of malfeasance leveled against him by numerous current and former career government officials. AFSAPresident JohnK. Naland, noting the 13-page list of alle- gations released on Sept. 18, 2007, by Henry A. Waxman, chair- man of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, revealed thatAFSAalsohas beenapproached in recent days by several concerned former StateDepartment employeeswithdirect knowledgeof someof the events inquestion. The allegations against Mr. Krongard cover all aspects of theworkof theOffice of Inspector General: investigations, audits and inspections. They include alle- gations of his blocking investigations intopossible substandard con- struction at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, which may leave employees there unacceptably vulnerable. Naland commented: “The worse-case scenario in corruption is when it endangers lives. The worse-case scenario in public ser- vice is when the watchdog becomes the suspected violator. Both of these allegations have been leveledagainstMr. Krongard. As long as hemaintains day-to-day control, his office’s ability to do its vital jobwith full credibilitywill be compromised. He should stepdown until the allegations are resolved one way or another.” A F S A N E W S IG Resignation Call • Continued from page 55 AFSA NEWS BRIEFS AFSA, working with the State Department, helped convince Congress to pass legislation that provides a long overdue group of enhancements to educationand travel allowances that benefit FSmem- bers and their families. The new benefits cover certain dependents’ travel to the U.S. and now, for the first time, to a third country, for their secondaryor post-secondary education. Themeasure covers stor- age of personal effects at or near the school, or shipment of those effects once a year during trips to post (away-from-post Education Allowance). The measure also extends educational travel to children attending graduate-level programs prior to their 23rd birthday. After congressional passage and presidential signature into law (PL 109-472),AFSAthenengagedon the implementationplan. The changes to the educational travel benefit took effect on July 22. Details were included in a July 22, 2007, State ALDAC allowance biweekly. Success on Educational Travel Allowance