F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

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V.P. VOICE: RETIREE ■ BY ROBERT W. “BILL” FARRAND
Laws Can Change;
So Can Your Benefits
Lost in thought as I crawled in traffic behind a D.C. city bus, my eyes came to
rest on an advertisement plastered across its back panel: “Laws can change.
So can your pension. Join the National Association of Retired Federal Employees.”
As the words sunk in, I snapped out of my reverie. The point was clear: we
need to be reminded of just how vulnerable retirement benefits could become in
these tough economic times. While I do not believe pensions will be significantly
affected, I do think other benefits might come under pressure as our government
looks for ways to trim costs.
AFSA is the only organization devoted to looking after the benefits
and rights of Foreign Service members and their families, and its
strength flows from numbers.
When I talk to the roughly 7,000 Foreign Service annuitants who are not
AFSA members, I explain that AFSA is the only organization devoted to looking
after the benefits and rights of Foreign Service members and their families, and
that its strength flows from numbers. This is what impels AFSA to work with organizations
like NARFE, the Military Officers Association of America, and a federation
of dozens of similar organizations known as the FAIR Coalition. By
combining resources, we can stay abreast of legislative changes that might adversely
affect member interests. Our objective is to protect members’ (and nonmembers’)
backs by being alert to threats to retiree benefits, as well as to
opportunities for improving those benefits.
Incidentally, I just renewed my NARFE membership.
In other retiree news,AFSA is proactively engaging with the State Department’s
new management. One retiree issue that has long been an AFSA priority is to remove
the restrictions on folks serving under the category of “While Actually Employed,”
to enable the State Department to use longer — and less disruptive —
deployments of skilled and experienced Foreign Service retirees. We now hope to
make real strides in removing the caps on hours and salaries, just as retired military
officers have been able to do. Ideally, too, we hope to see administration of
the WAE process centralized in a manner that will make it more equitable and
transparent.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who responded to my last column seeking
ideas on how to reach the hundreds of Foreign Service annuitants who are not
AFSA members. You may be assured that Hank Cohen, Janice Bay, David Passage,
Jonathan Sperling and I took your many suggestions and ideas into account
as we honed our strategy for pursuing this elusive cohort of prospective members.
❏
HERE COMES THE CAVALRY
Re-employed
Annuitants
BY BONNIE BROWN,
RETIREE COORDINATOR
Because of salary and hours limitations,
re-employed annuitants
cannot be used effectively to reduce
the current shortfall in department
personnel or to provide continuity during
the period in which a hoped-for
surge of new Foreign Service personnel is
identified and trained.
As a result, department bureaus have
turned increasingly to contractors who
are not subject to these limitations — despite
the fact that contractors cost twice
as much as re-employed annuitants.
The current Foreign Service, at
11,300 members, is not adequate to carry
out the department’s foreign policy
functions. At present there is a 15-percent
shortfall in needed mid-level personnel
in embassies and consulates
abroad, as well as in the department.
This shortfall will increase with expanding
global responsibilities and challenges.
The department’s permanent work
force is augmented by about 1,300 to
1,500 re-employed annuitants (known
as “While Actually Employed”) — over
10 percent of the total.
Although WAEs have the training,
skills and experience to step into positions
in the department and at posts
abroad, the department is hobbled in its
ability to use them. The Foreign Service
Act limits the amount of salary a WAE
may receive in a calendar year, and Civil
Service provisions limit the number of
hours a WAE may work in an appointment
year. This means that a typical reemployed
annuitant can work no more
than three to four months a year.
In recent years, legislation has given
the department authority on a case-bycase
basis to waive one or both caps for
certain purposes, such as passport processing
and service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, the scope and duration
of this authority have been limited.
The National Defense Authorization
Act of 2004 provides a model for remov-
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