Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced legislation on Friday that they said aims to strengthen the State Department’s workforce and ensure senior leaders are selected based on a merit-based system – “not money or politics.”
The State Department Integrity and Transparency Act would set requirements for these positions to ensure they are staffed by experienced, thoroughly vetted foreign policy professionals.
According to the bill text, the senators said an appropriately staffed State Department is “imperative” for U.S. national security, especially as other competitor nations are “rapidly expanding their global diplomatic presences.”
“As China and Russia expand their global footprints and professionalize their diplomatic corps, this bill would help ensure our career diplomats and political appointees remain highly skilled and empowered to confront the growing number of complex challenges around the globe,” Sen. Kaine said in a statement.
“A strong, experienced workforce is essential to the success of our Federal agencies,” added Sen. Merkley. “This bill ensures the State Department – the face of American diplomacy – will have the best possible foreign policy professionals working to protect our national security and interests overseas. As the United States tackles growing global threats, we need to be able to confront these challenges wherever they appear with our best and brightest people.”
Specifically, the bill would require that at least 75 percent of the department’s assistant secretaries come from the agency’s Senior Foreign Service or Senior Executive Service.
It would also extend the existing requirement that the agency submit a report to Congress on the qualifications of ambassadorial nominees.
Additionally, the bill would strengthen an existing requirement for any chief of mission to disclose all contributions made to political campaigns. The senators said this would ensure that “competence, rather than contributions to political campaigns, is the primary qualification for the appointment of an individual as a chief of mission.”
The idea of the bill is in line with efforts to push back against the Trump administration’s October 2020 executive order that created a new “Schedule F” classification for Federal employees deemed to be in policy-making positions.
Democrats including Sen. Kaine and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., led the charge against the implementation of the executive order, which would have made it easier to hire and fire employees put into the proposed Schedule F class, arguing that the order would have created a “patronage system” for Federal jobs.
President Biden canceled his predecessor’s order shortly after taking office in 2021.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) also issued a final rule this spring that aims to protect career civil servants against the controversial “Schedule F” workforce policy. The final rule clarifies and reinforces long-standing protections and merit system principles for thousands of Federal employees.
“It’s in every American’s best interest that civil servants are hired through a merit-based system,” Sen. Kaine said at the time.
