It’s Good to Be in the Foreign Service (State Dept)

October 11, 2011

Tags: Foreign Service, OPM, Pakistan
Posted in: Afghanistan, Embassy/State, Iraq, Other Ideas

OK, sure, once in awhile I have complained here about working for the State Department as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), especially in the garden zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where some 1600 FSO positions exist.

I need to cut back my complaining.

Federal employees deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan who are not in the Foreign Service are losing numerous travel, medical and leave benefits because those benefits were not renewed by Congress after they expired October 1. This can include government colleagues from Treasury, Justice, Agriculture and more.

The following benefits, which are available to Foreign Service officers, will no longer be available to non-Foreign Service personnel posted in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM):

• Reimbursement of travel costs when going home on leave (State estimates $21,000 per year for the cost of these breaks).

• Reimbursement of travel costs when obtaining necessary medical care when such care is not available locally.

• Reimbursement of travel costs when evacuating family members who are in imminent danger.

• Reimbursement of travel costs when transporting furniture and other personal effects when moving to another duty station. State estimates this cost at $25,000; USAID estimates it at $48,983.

• Mandatory leave for employees who have returned home after a three-year deployment. Agencies also will no longer have the option to offer leave to employees who had served in a war zone for 18 months.

• Medical examinations, mental health care, inoculations, vaccinations and other preventative care.

• A death gratuity equal to one year’s salary when an employee dies of injuries sustained while supporting military operations.

The death gratuity expiration will only affect federal employees making more than $100,000, since the Labor Department in 2009 finalized regulations authorizing a $100,000 death gratuity when a civilian employee dies of injuries incurred while supporting a combat operation.

Those benefits that expired were originally extended to non-Foreign Service personnel in a 2006 war supplemental bill. OPM issued a notice Oct. 7 reminding agencies those benefits had expired. The proposed 2012 Defense authorization bill, which Congress is still considering, does not contain an extension of those benefits.

This will not improve morale on Team America.

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