The Foreign Service Journal, December 2005

DECEMBER 2005 • AFSA NEWS 9 theygooverseas isunfair, illogical andunac- ceptable at a timewhenweneed toencour- age people to serve in increasingly difficult —anddifficult tostaff—foreignposts. We informed her that our survey, as well as direct contacts with our members, left no doubt that this is the number-one issue for the Foreign Service. I described the tremendous progress that AFSAhasmade in lobbying a range of members of Congress toget overseas comparabilitypay passed in Fiscal Year 2006, including find- ing a champion in the Senatewhowaswill- ing to put his support in writing in an important letter to the key appropriations subcommittee chairman. I told the Secretary that our members have heard her assert her support for the Foreign Service and that her key deputies have told us that obtaining overseas com- parability pay for employees at the FS-1 level and below is the department’s highest personnel-related priority. I asked her to use her personal influence to make it happen, and to get the White House on board. I asked her to make a phone call to a key member of Congress to show her support of OCP in principle, something that would have greatly improved the chances for its passage this year. Secretary Rice reaffirmed that OCP is in fact a top priority, and said that she had personally spoken to the director of theOffice ofManagement and Budget on several occasions to seek his concurrence. (We learned later from her chief of staff that she was unable to make the call because OMB would not clear it. However, he affirmed that she supports OCP andwill work to get it for Fiscal Year 2007. I told him that her willingness to use her personal political capital and rela- tionship with the president to get OCP is seen as the litmus test of her support for the department’s employees.) Pay for Performance Linked to OCP Asitturnsout,departmentmanagement had long ago given up on OCP in FY-06. The OMB veto in last December’s budget request “passback”wasdefinitive. Theonly waytheWhiteHousewilleverseriouslycon- sider it, we’ve been told, is if it is part of an initiative to convert the entire FS person- nel system to “pay for performance.” However, it is important to realize that if management goes forward with a conver- sion to pay for performance, there would be some big tradeoffs in the equation. All FSemployeeswouldlosetheirannual3-per- cent step increase inreturnfor apool of per- formance-paymoney. Whether this trade- off would be good for FS employees dependsonsomekeyassumptions,themost important ofwhich is that Congresswould fund the performance-pay line item in the department’s future budgets at levels that equaled the lost three percent step increases. You will probably be hearing much more about all this in comingmonths. In any case, youcanbe assured thatAFSAwill play the legislative game again next year. The fact remains thatOCP is in the autho- rization bill the House passed earlier this year and that is a “two-year bill,” which means that it remains valid through thepre- sent Congress. To become law, though, we’d need a Senate companion bill. o D id you know that you help children and families every time you recycle paper, cans or glass? It’s true. StateDepartment recycling helps families cover the cost of quality child care at Diplotots, the department’s child-care center. Child carewithDiplotots costs $700-$1,000 permonth, depend- ing on the age of the child. TheDiplotots Board of Directorsman- ages a tuition-assistance program that provides funding each year in tuition assistance for 15 to 20 children. The program is fund- ed primarily by contributions through the Combined Federal Campaign (#7861) and the StateDepartment’s recycling program. Last year, department recycling efforts generated $63,000. This revenuemakes it possible for parents fromawide variety of income levels to send their children to the same high-quality program. In 2005, nearly one-quarter of the families receiving tuition assis- tance earn less than $20,000 per year. The Diplotots Board cov- ers about 65 percent of the tuition bills for those families. The average annual income for a family with one child receiving assis- tance is $33,000. The average award given to a family is just over $300 per month. Funds are alsoused topermit childrenwho receive tuition assis- tance toparticipate in the center’s extracurricular activities—such as gymnastics, swimming and field trips—and to provide special learning opportunities for all the children in the center. So, the next time you need to toss any paper, cans or glass, look for a recycling bin. It’s good for the earth, and good for children. o Rice • Continued from page 1 STATE RECYCLING PAYS FOR CHILD CARE Recycle for Diplotots BY PAIGE CHABORA, DIPLOTOTS BOARD MEMBER OCP Dead for FY-06 Despite a six-week-long full court press by AFSA that generated enough momentum to keep our hopes up until literally the last minute, the House/Senate conferees on the State Department portion of the Fiscal Year 2006 appropriations bill finished their work on Nov. 4, and did not include the provision we’d been seeking granting overseas comparability pay to all FS members (not just the senior FS) overseas this year. At the end of the day, accord- ing to people in the meeting, it was the administration’s and department’s complete lack of support that doomed our efforts. The only way you’re realistically going to get this, we were told, is if you bring the administration along with you. The lesson we learned is that when Congress and the White House are controlled by the same party, it is exceedingly dif- ficult to get something passed in the face of that party’s opposition.