What does a Biden administration mean for the Foreign Service?

So what about the Foreign Service, and more niche, what about the hiring of new Foreign Service Officers?

We’ve already heard from Former President Obama that Biden is “gonna have to rebuild a State Department where some of the best people have been driven out systematically because they weren’t willing to tow Trump’s ideological agenda” (Pod Save America).

Additionally, having served multiple times as the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I think it is a safe bet to say that Biden will strengthen U.S. diplomacy and the Department of State during his administration.

But how?

The Center for American Progress, “an independent, nonpartisan policy institute dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership and concerted action,” recently published an interactive database of nearly 250 recommendations for the Biden administration. It is titled “The First 100 Days: Toward a More Sustainable and Values-Based national Security Approach“.

Within the database, three State Department employment recommendations stand out.

Propose to fund 1,000 new State Department full-time equivalent (FTE) positions to rebuild U.S. diplomacy
The State Department has been gutted over the past decade, first due to austerity and budget sequestration and more recently as the Trump administration sought to cut the department’s budget and push out public servants en masse. 

The next administration should request an increase of 1,000 FTEs to grow America’s diplomatic presence overseas and begin rebuilding a more diverse State Department workforce, aligned to emerging or under-resourced threats as defined in the OPM human capital initiative, discussed above. 

Half of these slots should be reserved for climate-related positions, as discussed in the “Tackling Global Challenges” section of this report.

Launch an effort to immediately recruit high-quality State Department employees
Concurrently with the review of personnel, the secretary of state can direct some immediate changes to ensure a high-quality pipeline of talent to meet the talent acquisition priorities identified by the 100-day review. These immediate steps could include:

• Leverage Section 308(a) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 or the OPM’s pending rule on promotion and internal placement to recall retired diplomats at the same rank they left with who were forced out in the past four years.
• Fully utilize Schedule B47 hiring authority to increase the number of technical and scientific specialists in the State Department. This will be essential to ensuring that the department has the expertise it needs in a variety of technical areas such as cyber, climate, tech, AI, health, biosecurity, and economics and finance.
• Task the Bureau of Global Talent Management to develop a proposal to establish a national diplomatic corps in high schools and colleges, modeled after the ROTC, to develop a reliable pipeline of skilled and diverse foreign service officers.

Launch a review of personnel to strengthen the State Department
The Trump administration’s efforts to gut the State Department have depleted its ranks. The next administration should launch a 100-day review to recommend immediate steps that the administration can take to strengthen the State Department. The review should be led by the undersecretary for management, who should be among the earliest appointees. The review should consider:

• The department’s structure and policymaking processes, including the undersecretary positions and which bureaus report to them.
• Key talent acquisition priorities for the department, including how to improve the ability of mid-career professionals to enter the State Department at ranks commensurate with their abilities; how to give State Department officers the ability to take long leaves of absence to obtain an advanced degree, gain private sector experience, or work for nonprofit organizations; and how best to make the foreign and civil services complementary pillars to promote U.S. foreign policy.
• How State Department and USAID leadership coordinate on foreign assistance as well as how to deliver such assistance most efficiently.
• How to refine and strengthen the role of the Global Engagement Center.

Basically, a hiring surge and improve the pathway into the field, both of which are very much needed, in my opinion.

If you took heed of my January recommendation to most definitely take the FSOT in 2020 if you believed Biden would win the presidency and have hopefully progressed past the Orals, then I think you are sitting pretty on the Register (even if you have a low score). If there is a hiring surge, potentially almost all on the lists could be picked up—a fun thought.

However, recommendation and reality are two intrinsic forces that tend to compete with one another.

First, there is the pandemic. A-100 and Oral Assessments have been delayed this year, which means there is much backup. Though an A-100 class did occur online and Orals have resumed for November, State is still behind.

Second, funding. A lack of travel due to the ‘Rona means a lack of income for the department through visa fees. Additionally, any money requests will have to go to Congress. Depending on the make-up of the Senate, how money is dedicated will be a crucial fight.

And third, the great unknown.