Lawmakers Outline Plan for Enhanced Training for State Department Personnel
Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) introduced legislation to ensure that State Department employees, both foreign service officers and civil servants, are properly trained at every level. The Act to Improve Training at the State Department is the result of Senator Hagerty, a former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, urging Congress to update the Foreign Service Act of 1980.
The legislation calls for the Department to move from its current on-the-job training to a more comprehensive training program with innovative education and training courses, methods, programs, and opportunities—linking employee training to promotional opportunities and assignments.
In addition to establishing a Chief Learning Officer (CLO) role, the bill also requires the establishment of a nonpartisan Board of Visitors to provide independent oversight, including advice and recommendations related to training at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).
“This bipartisan legislation calls for the State Department to build a more professional diplomatic corps, with a clear link between required employee training and promotional opportunities and assignments, and to establish a Chief Learning Officer to spearhead that effort,” stated Senator Hagerty.
The Government Accountability Office has published several reports that details the Department’s workforce challenges, including retention and diversity. Moreover, Congress passed its last major State reorganization law more than 40 years ago.
“The Department of State is a crucial national security agency. It’s time to modernize and prioritize the training and professional development they receive – enabling these public servants to more effectively promote our national security interests abroad,” stated Senator Cardin, “We must continue to recruit and retain the best and brightest to represent America around the world, so we must invest in their skills and constantly add value to their experiences.”
Senator Cardin has previously stated nearly half of the Department's training budget goes toward language learning, yet at least one out of every four assignments fail the minimum language standards.
“In the Defense Department and defense budget, we have built-in redundancies so that we can surge and take care of contingencies that could occur that’s in our national security interests defend against, but at State, we really do not have that capacity to surge,” Senator Cardin acknowledged.
Before the Senate Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management in July 2021, Former Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun noted about 15 percent of the Department’s personnel should be in training at any given time. However, supervisors will press staff to start their assignment as soon as possible and forego training.
“The United States military would never take somebody off a deployment and put them onto a new deployment, maybe in the most critical needs of the country, but as a routine matter, that would be unforgivable,” Biegun stated.
Biegun concluded that rethinking training at the State Department would help ensure a more robust workforce.
