NDAA backs State Dept efforts to build up workforce, modernize diplomatic mission

Congress is backing many of the State Department’s plans to modernize its workforce and bring its diplomatic corps into the 21st century in the latest defense policy bill.

The fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act lawmakers passed this week directs the department to keep the House and Senate up to date on its plans to stand up its Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, as well as provide updates on its hiring efforts.

The NDAA specifically requires the department to inform lawmakers how well it’s meeting its long-term goal of developing a more diverse workforce, particularly within its higher ranks.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) also applauded that the final bill includes a reauthorization of the State Department and its activities. The NDAA excluded this reauthorization language for nearly 20 years, but was reintroduced in the NDAAs for fiscal 2022 and 2023.

“This year’s reauthorization is instrumental in strengthening diversity, equity and inclusion at the department — including through establishing a paid student internship program — and helping the department address new and emerging issues by establishing a bureau dedicated to cyberspace and digital policy,” Meeks said in a Dec. 8 statement.

Hiring and DEIA initiatives

The NDAA gives the department 180 days to issue a report to Congress breaking down the demographic data of its workforce.

The report should include a look at the demographic breakdown of individuals joining the workforce, as well as employees promoted to the Senior Executive Service.

The report should also include the attrition rate of the State Department’s workforce, including members of the SES and Senior Foreign Service.

The report will also include the spending on diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs over the last four years, and disaggregated spending by bureau and activity.

Those activities include recruiting at women’s colleges and historically Black colleges, universities and other affinity groups. The State Department must also offer the written and oral portions of the Foreign Service Officer Exam online or in multiple regions across the U.S. “to reduce the burden of applicants having to travel at their own expense.”

The report should also include breakdowns in workforce pay and compensation, recruitment, hiring, promotions and retention; reasonable accommodations for disability and religion, and addressing sexual harassment and discrimination.

The department must also publish the disaggregated workforce data no later than a year after submitting the report to Congress.

Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley told Federal News Network in November that the State Department, for the first time in recent history, holds disaggregated workforce data sets that break down the composition of its workforce across nearly every one of its offices.

‘Lateral entry’ into Foreign Service

The bill also requires the department to identify any barriers for applicants applying for employment with the department.

The report, due within 120 days of the NDAA becoming law, should include demographic data from the last three years on the demographics of online job applicants — including race, ethnicity sex, age, veteran status, disability and geographic region.

The NDAA directs the department to expand its Foreign Service to include mid-career employees from its Civil Service workforce and private-sector employees with subject matter expertise.

The bill gives the department 180 days to report on the implementation of a pilot program focused on this “lateral entry” into the Foreign Service.

The pilot, which is expected to launch in fiscal 2023, is a departure from the Foreign Service’s focus on recruiting prospective hires early in their careers, and retaining them for the duration of their career.

The NDAA also requires the State Department to conduct a feasibility study within 120 days on creating Centers of Excellence in Foreign Affairs and Assistance.

The centers would function as a public-private partnership meant to increase interest in foreign assistance federal careers by providing non-profit and business professionals with the “skills and education needed to meaningfully contribute to the formulation and execution of United States foreign policy and assistance.”

The centers of excellence would also create opportunities for specialized research, education, training, professional development and leadership for employees belonging to an underrepresented group within the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Security clearances, morale surveys and training

To ensure a steady flow of incoming hires, the NDAA directs the State Department to address the state of its security clearance backlog, a perennial bottleneck for national security personnel.

The NDAA gives the State Department 270 days to streamline the security clearance approval process within its Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The NDAA directs the department to get the approval process down to an average of six months for most Civil Service and Foreign Service applicants, and a year for the “vast majority of cases.”

Lawmakers instruct the department in its report to identify any remaining barriers, “including lack of cooperation or other actions by other federal departments and agencies.”

The bill also directs the department to hire no fewer than 15 additional personnel to address hiring backlogs and Office of Civil Rights complaints.

The NDAA also directs the department to set aside time and resources for its workforce to enroll in routine professional training.

The bill directs the department to look at alternative means of training, including virtual instruction. It also instructs Foreign Service personnel in destabilized areas to train on U.S. policy on how to respond to international “shocks and stresses,” including climate change and lack of affordable and reliable electricity.

“The new and evolving challenges of national security in the 21^st century necessitate the expansion of standardized training and professional development opportunities linked to equal, accountable and transparent promotion and leadership practices for department and other national security personnel,” the NDAA states.

The bill supports the department’s ongoing investment in a “training float,” a concept former Secretary of State Colin Powell envisioned for the continuous professional development of U.S. diplomats.

In practice, the training float ensures a set number of employees undergo training at any given time, without sacrificing front-line readiness at their posts.

The NDAA also directs the department to encourage Foreign Service officers to complete the professional development described needed to become eligible for entry into the Senior Foreign Service.

To better assess the conditions of its personnel overseas, the NDAA requires the department to issue an annual survey to assess the management conditions at diplomatic and consular posts.

The department under the NDAA must conduct an annual survey for the next five years to assess the general morale at post, and “the presence of any hostile work environment,” or any harassment or discrimination.

The NDAA directs the director general of the Foreign Service to submit an annual report to Congress on trends from the management assessments, and whether any of the survey findings warrant an investigation from the agency’s inspector general.

Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy

The NDAA also charts a course for the department’s new Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy

The bill outlines goals for the bureau as it represents the U.S. in setting international norms on cybersecurity and the use of emerging technology tools, starting with its workforce.

The NDAA gives the State Department special hiring authority to fast-track the hiring of up to 25 cyber experts to join the bureau. The special appointments could earn as much as a level IV on the Executive Schedule, which was $176,300 in 2022.

The NDAA directs the State Department to stand up positions in the Bureau of Global Talent Management focused entirely on recruiting and retaining employees in positions tied to cybersecurity, engineering, data science, artificial intelligence, emerging technology and technology policy.

These hiring officials are charged with recruiting new hires from the private sector and academia. The NDAA also directs them to work with the Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Digital Service to develop and implement best strategies for recruiting and retaining technology talent.

The NDAA authorizes $750,000 for each of the fiscal years 2023 through 2027 for technology talent acquisition.

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