American Foreign Service Association meeting with Secretary Clinton.

PositionHillary Rodham Clinton - Report

Editor's Note: On March 20 the leaders of the American Foreign Service Association, the professional association that represents Foreign Service members, held their first meeting with Secretary Clinton and her senior deputies. They discussed a wide range of resource, personnel, and career-related issues of concern to Foreign Service members that should also be of interest to other foreign affairs professionals, active and retired. Following is the text of the cable sent by AFSA to diplomatic and consular posts summarizing the meeting.--Ed.

FM SECSTATE WASHDC

TO ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR POSTS COLLECTIVE

SUBJECT: AFSA: First Meeting with Secretary Clinton

  1. In our first official meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on March 20, AFSA raised the membership's top concerns regarding resources, the overseas pay disparity, war-zone staffing, family-friendliness, political ambassadors and the future of USAID.

  2. Secretary Clinton, accompanied by Deputy Secretary Jacob Lew and Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, warmly received AFSA President John Naland, State VP Steve Kashkett, USAID VP Francisco Zamora, and AFSA General Counsel Sharon Papp for the 30-minute discussion. Naland pledged AFSA's willingness to collaborate with the Secretary on an ambitious agenda of action items vital to the long-term health of American diplomacy. The Secretary thanked AFSA for being a strong advocate for the Foreign Service.

    Budget, Resources, and the Overseas Pay Gap

  3. Turning to resources and staffing, the Secretary said she and her team were 100-percent engaged and had moved quickly to persuade the White House and Congress of our needs, but acknowledged that this will be an uphill battle in the current budget environment. Naland argued that the present and future demands on U.S. diplomats will necessitate dramatic budget increases and sufficient new staffing to create the "training float" that will enable the Foreign Service to acquire the languages and special skills essential to our mission. He drew a sharp contrast between the Foreign Service and the U.S. military, which devotes considerable resources and time to training its people.

  4. In response to AFSA's affirmation of the growing urgency of the overseas pay gap, Secretary Clinton said she had raised this issue at the Cabinet level for the first time and that the response was one of surprise that such a problem existed. There is a consensus, she affirmed, that the pay disparity must...

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