New Hires, Weak Dollar Part of State's Increase
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
The State Department received one of the biggest boosts in the Bush administration's 2009 spending plan, which calls for a major staff increase of almost 1,100 foreign service officers, security staffers and development specialists. The budget also allocates $85 million to compensate for the drop in the value of the dollar to cover the 2008 budget, U.S. officials said.
"The exchange rate is hitting us hard," said Pat Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management.
The total budget for the State Department, the Agency for International Development and other international programs is $39.5 billion, up from $36.2 billion in the 2008 budget, Kennedy said. State's share is $8.2 billion, while foreign assistance would total $22.7 billion, he said.
Much of the State Department increase would fund three programs. It would add 300 positions for language training, particularly for difficult languages such as Arabic, Chinese and Urdu. It would also expand the Civilian Response Corps, a recent initiative to form groups of U.S. government specialists to deploy around the world, either with or after a U.S. military presence, to help stabilize countries moving from wartime to peace. The spending plan also would create 150 slots for staff training, half at military institutions such as the Army War College.
The plan for 1,076 new positions -- one of the largest one-year increases ever at State -- comes in response to a shortage of diplomats to work in crisis zones, with many embassies staffed at 70 percent. "[Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice has made clear she is going to go all out" to win approval for new staff, Kennedy said.
-- Robin Wright
