Senate Democrats push for more career diplomats and fewer political appointees

Or the one about the bipartisan political fundraiser and candidate for U.S. ambassador to Norway nominated by President Barack Obama? George Tsunis was never there and demonstrated a shocking lack of knowledge about the country during his disastrous Senate confirmation hearing. He later withdrew his nomination.

It’s examples like these that led Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to propose legislation aimed at strengthening the State Department’s high-level staff, including ambassadors (also called chiefs of mission) and assistant secretaries. Kaine is not opposed to politicians receiving high-level assignments, but he wants to ensure they are competent. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are co-sponsors.

Tsunis, in fact, is now President Biden’s ambassador to Greece, where he speaks the language and where his parents live.

Trump’s possible re-election is one of the reasons for the senator’s bill. Kaine opposed a Trump executive order, rescinded by Biden, that would have created Schedule F, a new category of federal employees without the civil service employment protections they now have. He threatened to infuse the federal workforce with more political appointees while downsizing nonpartisan staff.

“We saw Donald Trump try, which makes me believe he would do it again… like he said he would,” Kaine explained during a Tuesday afternoon interview in his Capitol Hill office.

Unlike many countries, the United States does not always send abroad its best, those highly regarded diplomats trained to represent Washington at the international level.

“I want to further professionalize our Foreign Service and make sure that even political appointees have some good faith,” Kaine said, “in addition to having supported the president.”

According to a summary of the bill, Kaine’s legislation:

● Require that at least 75 percent of deputy secretaries of state come from the Higher Foreign Service or the Senior Executive Service.

● Call for a president to certify “that competence, not political campaign contributions, is the primary qualification for the appointment of an individual as chief of mission.”

● Ensure that “political deputy ambassadorial nominees not vetted and not confirmed by the Senate do not serve prolonged and cushy assignments abroad at significant expense to the taxpayer.”

Susan R. Johnson, president of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, favors limiting political ambassadors to no more than 15% of the total group. “I’m sorry that these things need to be legislated,” she said, “but that seems to be where we are.”

Thomas Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), would like all ambassadors to be Foreign Service officers, but said the reality is that some popular positions “will have political ambassadors… that’s not going to change” under either political party. . .

“I don’t remember the last time, for example, there was a career ambassador in France or the United Kingdom, or in Germany or Italy,” he added. “It’s been a long time, if ever.”

Yazdgerdi pointed to U.S. law that says ambassadors “must possess clearly demonstrated competence to perform the duties of head of mission,” including, “to the extent possible,” knowledge of the country’s language, culture, economic and political issues. Furthermore, “chief of mission positions should normally be assigned to career members of the [Foreign] Service.”

Currently, 62% of Biden’s ambassadors are career officials, while 38 percent are not, according to AFSA’s ambassador tracker. Trump favored more political appointments: 43.5%, with 56.5% career. During the Obama administration, 70% were career officials and 30% were politicians. Kaine favors a cadre of ambassadors made up of 75% career diplomats.

“At the senior level, the United States is an extreme outlier among the foreign services in the number of political appointees as ambassadors, even in senior positions,” according to a 2017 study by the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). It recognizes some “highly talented political appointees who were excellent ambassadors”, but adds: “there were many more patronage appointees without relevant qualifications, having been chosen mainly for their support in presidential election campaigns”.

Kaine wants to stop this. Sitting in front of a Mark Campbell painting of the James River in the senator’s hometown of Richmond, Kaine, a canoe and kayak enthusiast, called for “a good balance” between career and political ambassadorships. “I don’t think the State Department needs to be the fully professionalized diplomatic corps that you see in other nations.”

Some nations, Kaine responded, appreciate having a U.S. chief of mission who is “a close confidant of the president… they feel that is a sign of respect.” Career diplomats have “fantastic track records” but are less likely to have a “really close relationship with the president.”

However, ambassadors posted by other countries “typically speak multiple languages, are well-versed in the country to which they are assigned and are career professionals with extensive knowledge of their home ministries,” UT Austin reported.

This is not always the case with ambassadors chosen for political connections.

“It must be emphasized that the United States,” the university researchers wrote, “pays a heavy price for being so disadvantaged at the highest level of many of its critical missions abroad.”