The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 5 V.P. VOICE: FCS n BY DONALD BUSINGER Whither the Commercial Service? O nSept. 13,Will Center and I tabled threemidtermpro- posals fornegotiationwithmanagement andhavebeen seeking its concurrence for apostingon theAFSAFCS Web site (by the time this is published I expect you should see it there). As I write during this balmy mid-October week in Washington,we are still awaiting anofficial response frommanagement, but I have indi- cations that wemay progress more quickly than in the past on at least one of the issues. Management, however, has been rightly focused on twomuch larger priorities. The top concern for Commerce management has been getting confirmed as management so that strategicdecisions canbemade. TheCommerceDepartment’sUnder Secretary- designate for International Trade—the headof our agency—hadnot been confirmed as of this writing. Israel Hernandez, however, was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the US&FCS in mid-October. Hernandez very promptly requested a meeting with AFSA President Tony Holmes. The meeting took place just two days after his swearing-in. Indeed, as alluded to in my October column, “strategic disbursement,” “right-siz- ing,” cutbacks andrealignments andperhaps even thedreaded“R”word(RIF), are issues that have been awaiting those confirmations and should be addressed shortly. As was apparent from the presence of Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, First Lady Laura Bush,WhiteHouseChief of StaffAndrewCard, AttorneyGeneral AlbertoGonzalez and OMB Director Josh Bolten at the swearing-in ceremony at USDOC, DG Hernandez has top-notch political connections. He assured AFSA that he would work all angles, bothatCommerce andon theHill, andkeepus advisedof pendingdecisions. His swear- ing-in remarks and other statements indicate that cuts do loom. In the field, Commercial Service officers are generally quite capable and effective at managing budgets—appropriated and trust funds— tomatch expenses and income at apost level. CS clients—Americanexporters—are alsogenerallyquite satisfiedwith our services for the fees paid. As we often say, for every dollar spent on trade promo- tion generally or assisting an export client specifically, manymore dollars accrue to our exports and our economy, as well as to the client company. Given budget pressures to extend the Commercial Service cost recovery toward 100 percent of indirect as well as direct costs, CS collections and targets remain in doubt. For Fiscal Year 2006, we got a partial reprieve onOct. 1. CS did not increase pricing to full cost-recovery levels, pending the outcome of House and Senate nego- tiations in conference for the FY-06 Commerce, Justice, State appropriations bill. On a broader scale, even though our total budget is set to increase from $220 mil- lion in FY-05 to $232 million in FY-06, earmarked amounts for reimbursements to State and other programs set by Congress leave the Commercial Service with a shrinking budget, even without a possible across-the-board 2-percent cut because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Salaries account for about 57 percent of budget and are considered a “sunk” cost (people are our best resource anyway, right?), so the pay increases from2005 to 2006, combined with inflation, unfavorable exchange rates and uncertain OMB cost-recovery levels, squeeze the overall budget so much that we cannot escape some action to realign expenses with “income.” Whether the actions involve personnel or program cutbacks — or both — remains to be seen. Whither the Commercial Service? o Money from AFSA for College Children of Foreign Service employ- ees who are high-school seniors and college undergraduates are eligible to apply for one-time-only AFSA Academic and Art Merit Awards and renewable need-based AFSA Financial Aid Scholarships. Awards range from $1,000 to $3,000. The submission deadline is Feb. 6. Visit AFSA’s scholarship programs Web page at www.afsa.org/scholar/ index.cfm for complete details, e-mail Lori Dec at dec@afsa.org or phone her at (202) 944-5504 or 1 (800) 704-2372, ext. 504 (toll-free). In the Journal Have you ever wondered whether tak- ing your kids along for overseas post- ings will enhance their long-term educa- tional/careeer/social prospects? Well, Francesca Kelly addresses this question in her article, “Going to College in America,” in this month’s Schools Supplement. See if her conclusions match your expectations. In Search of a Symbol and a Slogan for OCP Active-duty AFSAmembers have confirmed that overseas comparabil- ity pay is the number-one person- nel-related issue for them. As part of AFSA’s ongoing campaign to gain OCP for all Foreign Service person- nel serving overseas, we are seeking a catchy symbol and slogan for the campaign and encourage your input. Send ideas to AFSA Secretary Tex Harris at afsatex@aol.com. Continued on page 7 AFSA NEWS BRIEFS Briefs • Continued from page 4