F OCUS - American Foreign Service Association

ing restrictions on rehiring annuitants to
meet the ongoing or longer-term critical
personnel needs of government departments.
As a general rule, the Department
of Defense may rehire recently
retired annuitants without salary and
hours limitations for positions that 1) are
hard to fill or for which there is a severe
shortage of candidates; 2) are critical to
the department’s mission or are necessary
to complete a specific project; 3) require
unique or specialized (including
language) skills and experience; 4) focus
on mentoring less-experienced employees;
or 5) provide continuity during organizational
transitions.
By gaining similar authorization to
lift salary and hours limitations, the Department
of State could use re-employed
annuitants to reduce its shortfall in critically
needed personnel and provide
continuity during department expansion
and training of new Foreign Service
officers. ❏
Libraries • Continued from page 39
With the current AFSA Governing
Board’s term coming to an end, the future
of this program will depend on follow-up
work by others. Since only 47
out of 268 embassies, consulates and
missions applied to participate, there is
room for expansion should more supervisors
with mentorship responsibilities
(including deputy chiefs of mission,
principal officers and office deputy directors)
encourage their employees to
engage in professional development by
way of these discussion groups. In addition,
for the June 2008 Foreign Affairs
Professional Reading List to continue to
serve as an up-to-date resource, revisions
every year or two will be necessary.
For now, AFSA thanks all of those
who contributed to the success of this
pilot project. That list includes Under
Secretary Burns and the staffs of the Association
for Diplomatic Studies and
Training, the Ralph J. Bunche Library,
the Office of the Historian and the Office
of eDiplomacy. We especially thank
the Una Chapman Cox Foundation for
its financial support. ❏
V.P. VOICE:
FCS ■ BY KEITH CURTIS
The Best of Times or
the Worst of Times?
in documented export sales to
more than 200 markets.
How did Wall Street do?
Charles Dickens wrote,“It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times.” Right now I am trying to figure
out what the “best of times” part is.
Senator Judd Gregg, R-N.H., recently withdrew from
consideration for Secretary of Commerce. As you all
know, this is the second nomination we have seen withdrawn. What are we —
chopped liver? Sen. Gregg withdrew because of his conflicts with our policy issues
and because he realized that he could not be his own man in this administration.
From what I understand this was not exactly a bolt of lightning, but something
that came to him over time. Perhaps it is just as well that he is not our Secretary
of Commerce.
Unfortunately, this double whammy comes at a time when the Foreign Commercial
Service most needs a leader who can help us fight for resources. Most of
you may have heard that we are facing a severe budget shortage this year of almost
$24 million — more than 10 percent of our total budget. We have had to
enact strict budget-cutting measures, eliminating virtually all regular travel. That
puts a serious crimp on an organization with 70 offices around the world and
more than 100 in the United States. These measures were very carefully and intelligently
considered by our manage-
Last year we produced $80 billion
ment, and we appreciate greatly that
they have committed not to undertake
furloughs or lay-offs in this process.
But as careful and well thought out
as this process has been, we have already
cut to the bone. After eight years
of cost-cutting, our focus now needs
to be on getting more resources. That is hard to do without a Secretary of Commerce,
but it is time for the career people at Commerce and in the Foreign Commercial
Service to step forward and fill the void of leadership, by going to the Hill
and the White House to make the case for increasing the Commerce Department
work force.
That should not be hard: every tax dollar appropriated to the Commercial Service
yields $430 in export sales for the U.S. Last year we produced $80 billion in
documented export sales to more than 200 markets. How did Wall Street do? Yet
while Wall Street financial institutions are getting $800 billion from the U.S. government,
we could pay the needs of our organization many times over just on
their bonuses.
The penny-ante policy of these budget cuts is grossly wasteful. The $230 million
that the U.S. government spends on the entire Commercial Service budget becomes
shredded in its effectiveness for want of 10 percent of that amount.
And here is the“best of times”part. I believe that yes, it can be done. This administration
has the right ideas. This president understands the importance of soft
power and smart power. He knows that building economies is the heart of a safe
and free world, and commerce is the only tide that can lift these sinking boats.
This problem cannot be fixed with a short-term funding measure. It is time
to fully fund and fully staff the Department of Commerce. As this article goes
to press, we are hopeful that Secretary-designate Gary Locke, with his international
experience, will arrive in time to lead the recommitment effort. ❏
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