The final countdown: State and USAID prepare for shutdown
As Congressional leaders and the White House scramble to avoid a government shutdown at midnight, the State Department and USAID have sent out brand new details on how the shutdown will be implemented and how staffers should prepare. The American Foreign Service Association posted a three-part unclassified cable from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to ...
As Congressional leaders and the White House scramble to avoid a government shutdown at midnight, the State Department and USAID have sent out brand new details on how the shutdown will be implemented and how staffers should prepare.
The American Foreign Service Association posted a three-part unclassified cable from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to all diplomatic and consular posts explaining exactly how the looming shutdown will affect them.
"Throughout the discussions about funding for the rest of the fiscal year, the President has made it clear that he does not want a government shutdown, and the administration is willing and ready to work day and night to find a solution with which all sides can agree," Clinton wrote in part one of the cable. "Given the realities of the calendar, however, prudent management requires that we plan for an orderly shutdown should Congress be unable to pass a funding bill."
Part two of the cable instructs all chiefs of mission to choose which employees in their offices will continue to work during the shutdown. About 30 to 40 percent of U.S.-based employees should be exempted from furloughs — and in foreign missions the figure could be significantly higher. The foreign missions are "essential" because they are needed to contain short-term crises, provide emergency services to Americans abroad, and are key to maintaining diplomatic relationships with foreign governments, the cable stated.
The cable directed foreign missions to maintain their approximate staffing levels at the following rates: "Executive Office – 100% staffing, Political Section – 50 to 75%, Economic Section – 25 to 50%, Regional Security Office – 100%, American Citizen Services – 100%, Visas – 0%, Consular Supervisors – 50%, Cultural Affairs – 0%, Press – 50%, Management Section – 100%, and Facilities Section – 100%."
Part 3 of the cable gives the exact text of the furlough notices State and USAID employees will receive.
"Because your services are no longer needed for orderly suspension of operations and you are not engaged in one of the excepted functions, you are being placed in a furlough status effective as of the date of this letter. We would hope that the furlough (i.e., non-pay, non-duty status) will not exceed 30 days," the furlough notice will read. "You should monitor public broadcasts and when you hear that a continuing resolution or an FY 2011 appropriation for the Department has been approved by Congress and signed by the President, you will be expected to return to work on your next regular work day."
USAID has also issued extensive guidance on shutdown procedures, which were obtained by The Cable and can be found here.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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