The Federal Budget

The U.S. Congress is in the process of making difficult decisions to reduce government spending. When President Obama announced that all federal employees would not receive a cost of living increase for the next two years, I supported his decision.

Unfortunately, Rep. Tom Reid (R-NY) set his sights on diplomats, assuming that we do not deserve fair compensation for the sacrifices we make by serving our government overseas. I also want to note that other federal employees serving overseas have always received Washington locality pay and are not included in Rep. Reid's proposed cuts.

If you agree that we deserve to be fairly compensated for the sacrifices we make when serving overseas, I included a letter explaining the situation that you can send to your Congressional representatives. I also included a link to a blog article that gives a good description of what life is sometimes like for us.
http://emailfromtheembassy.blogspot.com/2011/02/current-events-or-why-we-deserve-this.html?spref=fb

Dear Senator/Representative XXXX,


I support efforts to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending across all our federal agencies as part of the effort to reduce our national deficit. However, I am concerned by current legislative proposals that call for reversing a carefully considered bi-partisan plan to modernize the pay system of the Foreign Service that is in the process of being implemented.

The Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act of 1990 was adopted as a way to reduce the government-wide disparity between the public and private sectors and is a basic component of salary for all civilian Federal employees, based on annual survey data collected by the Department of Labor. As a result of this law, every federal government employee working in the United States received “locality pay” as part of their salary. Until 2009, the only United States government civilian employees who did not receive this part of their salary were Foreign Service personnel serving their country overseas.

Locality pay for Foreign Service personnel and other federal employees serving in Washington, D.C. is now approximately 25%. Under the law prior to 2009, Foreign Service personnel serving abroad sacrificed this part of their salaries and took large pay cuts to their base salaries. As a result, because retirement packages are based upon base pay (including “locality pay”), Foreign Service officers representing their country abroad received smaller retirement packages than their colleagues who stayed in Washington. This was not sustainable and in 2009 a bi-partisan solution was found to correct this policy problem. Closing the pay gap is not a pay raise -- it is a correction of a 17- year-old unintended inequity in the worldwide Foreign Service pay schedule—an inequity that grew every year.

Today thousands of Foreign Service employees serve in hardship assignments around the globe, which now constitute nearly 60% of all posts. The number of unaccompanied posts has increased more than fivefold in the last decade. Assignments overseas are increasingly challenging, difficult and in many instances, dangerous. There has been strong bipartisan recognition that it is time to invest in diplomacy and development. Penalizing Foreign Service employees whose mission is to serve overseas to advance and protect our national interests by cutting their base pay undervalues the importance of their work, widens the gap between those serving in the United States and those facing hardships and sacrifices overseas and creates real disincentives to serving on the front lines of American diplomacy and development.

I hope that you will support the Foreign Service and help ensure that its members are not penalized for service overseas.

Sincerely,