Foreign Service Journal

A F S A

State: A Broad Range of Activity

AFSA’s efforts at the Department of State in 2008 covered a broad range of issues of intense concern to our members, but the focal point remained the unique problems and challenges associated with sustaining our two largest diplomatic missions in active war zones.

As we entered our sixth year of staffing Afghanistan and Iraq, we could count thousands of our members who had already volunteered fortoursofdutythere,andcouldproudlypointtotheForeignService’s willingness to “step up to the plate” for combat zone duty. We could confidently say that not a single directed assignment to either embassy or to the provincial reconstruction teams in the two countries had been necessary. Yet the Foreign Service nonetheless began 2008

under a cloud of bad press, hostile public opinion and congressional skepticism as a result of the department’s ill-advised “prime candidate” exercise for Iraq staffing in the fall of 2007, followed by its mishandling of the publicity surrounding that exercise.

AFSA undertook a campaign to set the record straight,

to restore the image of the Foreign Service and to persuade senior State officials to take a different approach to the Iraq/Afghanistan assignment cycle in 2008. We gave a series of high-profile media interviews, placed op-eds and helped dozens of our members worldwide to publish letters to the editor of their hometown newspapers. More importantly, we set forth a detailed blueprint for department management to use in recruiting volunteers for Foreign Service positions in the two war zones. This blueprint relied on positive encouragement rather than coercion, appealed to our members’ sense of duty, and allowed time for the natural dynamic of the Open Assignment process to generate willing bidders. In the end, the department adopted AFSA’s approach, and all Iraq and Afghanistan positions for summer 2009 were filled by the early fall of 2008.

Other aspects of war-zone service that AFSA repeatedly raised throughout the year with 7th-floor principals, with the director general’s office and with key State bureaus included honoring promises made to Iraq and Afghanistan volunteers for onward assignment consideration, ensuring that extended war-zone temporary duty service is reflected in employees’ HR folders and supporting families separated by unaccompanied tours. In January, AFSA hand-delivered a letter signed by 100 FS members in Iraq to House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N. Y., urging legislation to provide income tax exemptions to

federal civilian employees serving in combat zones. And proper recognition and treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among those returning from high-threat posts remained a frequent subject of discussion between AFSA and M/MED.

Beyond the complex problems surrounding war-zone service, the AFSA State office:

• Pressed for fairness in the assignment process and argued for even-handed application of fair share requirements and the 5/8-Year Rule, while still allowing for waivers in cases of demonstrable special circumstances and humanitarian need;

• Consulted closely with HR in revamping the Foreign Service entry process, introducing a Qualifications Evaluation Panel and modifying the written exam;

• Assisted members assigned overseas seeking employment for their family members or status/recognition for their domestic partners;

• Lobbied for more flexible rules for Foreign Service women who currently must exhaust their annual and sick leave when facing mandatory medical evacuation from overseas posts for pregnancy and childbirth;

• Negotiated new foreign contact reporting rules as well as modifications to Foreign Affairs Manual regulations in dozens of other areas;

• Held quarterly meetings with the senior leadership of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security to address concerns of personnel assigned to Iraq, DS investigative procedures and security clearance suspensions;

• Addressed a severe backlog in issuance of PCS travel orders and lack of responsiveness by HR technicians, as well as complaints from members regarding heavy-handed attempts by the Charleston Financial Services Center to collect alleged outstanding debts, sometimes more than a decade old, from employees’ travel or medevac vouchers;

• Conducted an electronic survey of the opinions of the entire State Foreign Service on a wide range of career-related subjects, drawing completed responses from nearly half of total Service members ( 5,700 out of 11,500).

As always, over the course of the year, the AFSA State vice president and the professional staff of the State Labor Management Office fielded requests from hundreds of members for assistance with individual problems; represented members in hundreds of grievances, disciplinary cases, DS investigations and security clearance cases; and fielded over a thousand requests for information or advice on a wide variety of issues.