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The President’s Budget Request for FY 2005

Richard L. Armitage, Deputy Secretary Of State; Grant S. Green, Jr., Under Secretary for Management
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, the Judiciary and Related Agencies
House Appropriations Committee
March 10, 2004

Prepared Statement For The Record

Introduction

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, Under Secretary for Management Grant Green and I appreciate the opportunity to testify today in support of the State Department’s portion of the President’s Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2005. I know Secretary Powell gave this subcommittee an overview of that request last week, and we will today focus on funding for the Department’s management agenda.

As the Secretary noted, the President’s top foreign policy priority is winning the war on terrorism. The President also places a high priority on creating opportunity in the world, which will help minimize instability and alleviate misery, as well as outflank the terrorists, who can thrive in such conditions.

These are ambitious and necessary goals for the security and well-being of our nation, and they require a workforce at the Department of State that is equal to the task. Under the leadership of Secretary Powell and with the support of this committee, the Department of State is recruiting, training, protecting and supporting a talented workforce that is more than equal to the task.

To that end, we are requesting $6.401 billion in discretionary funding for the Administration of Foreign Affairs portion of the FY 2005 State Department budget.

State’s Management Agenda

Our request will support the Secretary’s management priorities, which have been consistent since he was confirmed in his position in 2001.

People have always been the Secretary’s first priority; specifically, making sure that we have the right people in the right jobs at the right locations. Over the past three years, for example, we have:

Adopted new recruitment and more efficient hiring processes that have given us a broader, deeper and more diverse talent pool;
Simplified and streamlined our organizational structure by eliminating a number of “special envoy” positions;
We are also paying especially close attention to staffing needs in Iraq, to support Coalition Provisional Authority Chief Administrator L. Paul Bremer and our new Iraq Transition Coordinator, Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, as we move toward opening the new U.S. Embassy this summer. We are working with the Department of Defense to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Security for our people, our facilities and our information is another important priority. Advances over the past three years have included:

Investigations of and convictions in thousands of passport and visa fraud cases;
Numerous technical upgrades to the security systems at our overseas and domestic facilities;
A greatly expanded Anti-terrorism Training Program, to facilitate cooperation with our partners and allies in the war against terrorism.

Technology, or giving our people the tools they need to do their work, is another priority. For example, we have:

Completed the modernization of the Department of State’s global classified and unclassified information technology infrastructure through the OpenNet Plus and Classified Connectivity Programs.

Facilities are also a key priority and that means providing our people with safe, secure and modern work environments here and overseas. In the past three years, we have:

Established a stronger, more responsive Overseas Buildings Operations office;
Undertaken a Long-Range Overseas Buildings Plan as a strategic road map for facilities;
Brought new embassy compound construction to an all-time high.

Resources are a very important priority for the Secretary, with an emphasis on securing the resources that will support our people and our other priorities. Over the past three years, we have made a number of important broad reforms in how we manage those resources, including:

Designating the Deputy Secretary as the Department’s Chief Operating Officer, with the Chief Financial Officer now reporting to the Deputy Secretary, and with responsibility for evaluating the performance, policy and resource priorities of all State Bureaus and USAID;
Consolidating strategic planning and resource management into the Bureau of Resource Management, and strengthening the link between policy formulation and resource decisions, including improved Mission and Bureau Performance Planning (MPPs/BPPs);
Establishing formal mechanisms to better coordinate policy and management issues with the U.S. Agency for International Development to ensure implementation of a joint strategic plan.

Indeed, we would like to highlight the unprecedented level of collaboration between the Department of State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Last year, our two agencies issued the first ever joint State-USAID Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2004-2009. As part of the execution of that Plan, we have established a Joint Policy Council and a Joint Management Council.

The Joint Policy Council ensures that development programs are fully aligned with and fully inform our foreign policy goals. Within the Council, twelve functional and regional Policy Groups have developed work plans that highlight key goals and resources, review existing coordination mechanisms and identify priority policy coordination issues for future action. These Group plans have been consolidated into an overall State-USAID Policy Coordination Plan.

Similarly, the Joint Management Council is reviewing the range of potential areas of management collaboration between State and USAID, both in Washington and overseas, and is focused on the following key areas:(1) Resource Management; (2) Management Processes; (3) Information and Communications Technology; (4) E-Government; (5) Facilities; (6) Security; and (7) Human Capital. Corresponding working groups prepared implementation plans, which have been consolidated into an overall State-USAID Business Plan for Management Collaboration.

Specifically, State and USAID have launched a joint study to eliminate redundancies in management operations abroad, starting with financial management systems. Study teams are reviewing State and USAID motor pool, warehousing, leasing and residential maintenance services at several posts, including Cairo, Phnom Penh, Jakarta and Dar es Salaam.

State and USAID also are creating a joint Information Technology Enterprise Architecture with the goal of eliminating redundant information technology systems and consolidating IT operations between the two agencies wherever feasible.

Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2005

In FY 2005, we are requesting the funds to continue our progress in each of the priority areas of our management agenda.

People

In addition to ongoing personnel costs, the Department’s FY 2005 request includes $76 million for 317 new positions. Those positions include:

183 for new staffing requirements;
63 for the Consular Associates Replacement Program;
71 new security positions;
Also, we will add 60 new positions for the Border Security Program, which will be funded by revenue from fees.

We thank the members of this subcommittee for your support of the Diplomatic Readiness Initiative (DRI). Under DRI, we have the traction we need to respond to new priorities, such as the war on terrorism. Under DRI, we have experienced the largest workforce expansion in three decades, allowing us to close a personnel gap, to greatly improve our civil and foreign service training opportunities, and to meet new requirements. In FY 2002 and FY 2003, we hired 1,494 new employees above attrition in all job categories to help us “get whole”. With an expanding mission and attrition projected over the next decade in both the Foreign Service and the Civil Service, we are getting the people to fill behind them, to provide a personnel complement that allows for training and to have sufficient bench strength for crisis management. In FY 2004, we expect to hire 588 more employees above attrition.

Our FY 2005 funding request will allow us to meet new staffing requirements in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan. Previous resource requests did not anticipate these needs. DRI hiring over the last few years has allowed us to meet these needs with temporary reprioritization of existing staff. However, these situations at this point must be treated as baseline, permanent requirements, just as other embassies and programs. Without additional funding, we will have to sacrifice the DRI gains and reduce critical language and professional training to meet these requirements.

In addition, we are requesting funding to:

Complete implementation of the Consular Associates Replacement Program, which replaces Consular Associates with Foreign Service Officers, and to provide additional staff under the Border Security Program.
Increase security staffing as part of our continuing program of Worldwide Security Upgrades.

A major component in developing a good staff is training. It is central to career development, performance and retention. We have increased training in languages, consular affairs and public diplomacy. Since we launched the “Leadership and Management Continuum” at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in 2002, the demand for training has sky-rocketed, exactly what the Secretary and we had in mind at the outset of the initiative. For too long we asked our people (particularly mid-level and senior officers) to serve in positions requiring management and leadership skills, without affording them the opportunity to train in these areas. We have changed that and made a number of leadership/management courses at FSI mandatory at every stage of an employee’s career – and we will make more courses in other areas mandatory, as well.

We need to expand our language capabilities in critical national security languages so that our people can persuasively communicate America’s message to foreign audiences. A priority for us has been to develop and expand our Arabic language programs to support efforts in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. Arabic training has more than doubled between FY 1999 and FY 2003. That’s a good start and we need to keep building on these efforts to ensure we have a cadre of highly proficient speakers.

Iraq and Afghanistan – and the staffing necessary to support our efforts there – rank as the Secretary’s highest priority. We have taken steps to recognize the unique difficulties of service in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan by providing additional compensation, support and R&R.

Security

In addition to ongoing programs, the Department’s FY 2005 request covers important new security measures. This includes:

$658.7 million in Worldwide Security Upgrades, largely to meet needs associated with the global war on terrorism;

And $836 million for the Border Security Program, which spans $75 million in appropriated funds and $100 million in fees associated with legislation proposed for later transmittal.

Security remains a critical concern for all of us. We need to:

Strengthen the Department of State’s security programs so that they can keep pace with evolving technologies.
Continue defensive countermeasures to lessen our vulnerability to global terrorist threats, help thwart attacks and mitigate their effects.
Improve technical security countermeasures that provide protection from increasingly sophisticated threats targeted at information technology and PC-based technical security systems.
Exploit technology and dedicate additional personnel to enhance visa and passport issuance and combat fraud.

Multiple intelligence reports, derived from various sources, indicate that terrorist elements reconsidered attack plans against official U.S. missions and assets overseas in response to enhanced physical security measures. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security has been able to document at least 30 such incidents since September 11, 2001.

Our investigations help secure U.S. borders and protect the national security of the United States. We have investigated over 5000 passport and visa fraud cases and made over 700 arrests. Our passport and visa fraud cases involve drug trafficking, international organized crime, money laundering, pedophilia and murder.

The Department of State administers the interagency Rewards for Justice (RFJ) Program. The RFJ program allows the Secretary of State to offer rewards for information that prevents or resolves acts of international terrorism against U.S. interests worldwide. We have awarded payments of $42 million dollars to eight sources since January 2002. Information received under this program has helped us put terrorists behind bars, saved thousands of lives and is a key component of the U.S.G.’s fight against international terrorism.

We have enhanced the physical security at U.S. missions with countermeasures such as reinforced perimeter walls, closed-circuit TV cameras, bomb detection equipment, walk-through metal detectors, x-ray equipment and additional alarm and public address systems. We have increased the number of local guards and surveillance detection (SD) staff, upgraded physical security at residences and augmented bodyguard coverage of at risk individuals and vehicles.

We completed deployment of “first responder” chemical/biological equipment and training at all posts. We deployed additional chem/bio equipment and completed vital training at 98 posts. We also spent significant time ensuring that Near East posts were well prepared prior to the start of the war in Iraq. Over 32,000 personnel overseas have now been trained and equipped. We also provided 112 domestic training courses in chem/bio protection to security professionals being assigned abroad.

We are meeting the security challenges of establishing and maintaining a diplomatic presence in Kabul and Baghdad. We have begun development, coordination and implementation of security policy, operations and logistics for the start-up of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. We are assisting the Department of Defense’s Regional Security Coordination Office with staffing, resources and policy guidance. We have continued to work with the Afghan Reconstruction Group (ARG) to finalize personnel, equipment and cost estimates to support and protect ARG personnel assigned to Kabul, as well as to bolster U.S. Ambassador Khalilzad’s protective detail.

At domestic facilities, we have established an explosive detection K-9 unit, more stringent access, increased uniformed guard patrols and random exterior checkpoints and identification checks for pedestrian traffic at the Harry S Truman (HST) building. We have established a 15-person Emergency Response Team to provide emergency first responder capability to handle incidents involving threats to the safety of employees and visitors at HST.

We are establishing investigative/protective liaison offices at eight major U.S. airports.

We are working closely with the Department of Homeland Security, including providing a Diplomatic Security Special Agent on detail, and with other U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

We are implementing a program to install and maintain a worldwide, automated, physical-security monitoring system. The system can be monitored from a domestic U.S. location and provide real-time notification of any breach of the diplomatic facilities it covers overseas.

We are working with the U.S. Olympic Committee to provide security support to the Government of Greece for the protection of U.S. athletes at this summer’s Athens Olympics. This is the first time we have offered this level of support for such an event abroad. Given today’s threat environment, among other factors, this support is a prudent and necessary decision.

Our Antiterrorism Assistance Program has expanded to better meet the needs of our partner nations in the Global War on Terrorism by delivering more specialized training through in-country programs that rapidly reach larger numbers of friendly foreign police with greater cost efficiency. The international security partnerships this program achieves are aimed at stopping the terrorists before they can reach our shores.

The FY 2005 request includes $658.7 million in Worldwide Security Upgrades for these vital programs: post-September 11 security staffing needs; armored vehicle replacement; investigations; facility protection in Kabul, Afghanistan and Dushanbe, Tajikistan; the Center for Antiterrorism and Security Training; and domestic counterterrorism exercises involving senior U.S.G. officials (TOPOFF).

Our security concerns extend far beyond the Department of State’s own requirements, however. We also have critical responsibility for protecting private U.S. citizens overseas and for ensuring U.S. border security.

The FY 2005 request provides a total of $836 million for the Border Security Program, including $75 million in appropriated funds and $100 million in fees associated with legislation proposed for later transmittal.

U.S. citizens traveling, studying and working abroad have frequently been caught on the front lines of America's struggles with terror, crime and threats to safety. Consular work also protects Americans at home in the United States: continuous improvement of passport and visa programs makes it increasingly difficult for terrorists or criminals to operate with forged or altered American passports or visas.

In 2003, we completed deployment of a new nonimmigrant visa (NIV), containing enhancements to prevent counterfeiting and alteration, and began worldwide deployment of biometric NIV software. As of the end of February 2004, over 70 posts are collecting two fingerprints from applicants. All visa posts will have this capability by October 26, 2004. Visa applications and associated data, such as fingerprints, are shared with the Department of Homeland Security.

We published a “visa roadmap” outlining new visa priorities and policies and issued over 40 standard operating procedures to provide an unambiguous guide for consular officers to use in reviewing visa applications and fulfilling their critical national security responsibilities. On August 1, 2003, we implemented new regulations setting a worldwide visa interview policy, limiting the waiver of personal appearance for nonimmigrant visa applicants to only a few categories of exceptions, such as diplomats, children and the elderly.

We mandated an annual worldwide review of management controls for consular sections and instituted Consular Management Assistance Team (CMAT) visits to posts to assess the integrity of management controls, effective resource utilization and space allocation, as well as the extent to which standard operating procedures have been understood and implemented. CMATs visited 29 posts in 2003. We created a Vulnerability Assessment Unit staffed by personnel from Consular Affairs and Diplomatic Security. This unit uses consular systems to detect anomalies in visa and passport processing.

Under the Border Security Program, we will:

Continue implementation of biometric collection (fingerprinting) from visa applicants, in accordance with the Patriot Act.
Adjudicate more than eight million U.S. passport applications in FY 2005 and enhance the passport process and documents, including the introduction of a new U.S. passport containing a contactless chip.
Continue to develop and maintain the Consolidated Consular Database (CCD). All data from non-immigrant visa applications (including the photograph of the applicant) are now transmitted in near-real time to the CCD in Washington from every U.S. consular post worldwide.

Operate the digital passport application database (PRISM), which includes electronic images of all passport applications received since 1994. PRISM often contains the only contemporary photograph of a person of interest to law enforcement agencies.
Conduct a pilot Facial Recognition Program for 13 high fraud posts to identify visa applicants who are reapplying under different identities.
Maintain the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS). CLASS now has almost 18 million names in its visa database and 3.8 million names in the U.S. passport database.

When tragedy does strike, we want to know why and how to avoid similar incidents. Historically, Accountability Review Boards (ARBs) have made an important contribution to safeguarding our employees and U.S. interests abroad. In recent years, ARBs have looked at the August 1998 East Africa embassy bombings and the October 2002 murder of USAID officer Larry Foley in Jordan. This January, Secretary Powell convened an ARB chaired by former Ambassador David Fields to examine the circumstances surrounding the Gaza motorcade bombing in October 2003. In June, the Secretary will send Congress a formal response to the recommendations and findings the Board proposes.

Technology

The Department’s FY 2005 request for information technology is $830.9 million, including $155.1 million for technology initiatives through the Capital Investment Fund.

The year 2003 was a watershed for the Department of State in the field of information technology. Shortly after he became Secretary of State, Secretary Powell came to Congress and outlined information technology as one of his highest priorities. Our objective has been to support faster, smarter, simpler and more effective diplomacy at every level. With the help of this subcommittee, the Department now has Internet access on desktops worldwide. This has changed the way the State Department does business.

IT security improvement is the Department’s top IT priority. Thus far, the State Department has assessed risk for 65 percent of major applications and general support systems; 34 percent have been fully authorized. The Department is on track to complete full authorization of all major applications and general support systems by the end of FY 2004. The Department of State continues to increase its information security posture in accordance with the Federal Information Security Act (FISMA) to facilitate high assurance of the Department’s vital information assets.

Another key priority is the improvement in availability of up-to-date technology for all State Department personnel. In FY 2003, we completed two projects ahead of schedule and under budget:

OpenNet Plus, which has given the users of over 43,000 desktop computers worldwide access to the Internet.
Classified Connectivity Project (CCP), which has provided 224 eligible posts with access to our classified network and to the intelligence community’s secret level Secret Internet Protocol Network (SIPRNET).

A third project underway is the State Messaging and Archive Retrieval Toolset (SMART), a simple, secure and user-driven system. SMART will support the conduct of diplomacy through the use of a modern, web-based technology that will provide enhanced communications and knowledge management tools and dynamic archiving. It will replace legacy cable and email systems. In FY 2002 and 2003, the Department assessed alternatives and completed and evaluated a prototype. State, in conjunction with other foreign affairs agencies, has initiated a line of business analysis to identify any similar initiatives for those agencies in the overseas environment and to determine the requirements gap, if any. The objective is a coordinated interagency messaging system at our overseas posts that supports all agencies under Chief of Mission (COM) authority. We will pilot SMART to over 3,000 users in domestic and overseas locations, with the target of beginning worldwide deployment in FY 2005.

We will implement a centralized technology modernization program that will sustain our recent progress in standardizing and modernizing IT hardware and software. Furthermore, we will continue to explore new solutions such as “Thin Client” technology, which could further our goal of the “dataless post”.

To leverage our substantial technology investments and provide for continual IT modernization, the Department is replacing classified and unclassified equipment on a four-year life cycle basis. We will never again permit ourselves to get so far behind the technology curve that our ability to conduct normal business is compromised.

Technology improvements do not just make work easier for our employees. They relate directly to homeland security, through such activities as visa and passport name checks, increased data sharing with other agencies, border security controls and services for American citizens abroad.

Facilities

The Department’s FY 2005 request includes $1.539 billion for Embassy Security, Construction and Maintenance.

More than 30 U.S.G. agencies, including the Department of State, rely on the support platform our 260 diplomatic and consular posts provide.

The Department of State has regularized the facilities planning process in several ways and currently has $4 billion under management, up from $0.7 billion in FY 2001:

We have created the Long-Range Overseas Buildings Plan to serve as a strategic road map for facilities and increase transparency in the decision-making process;
We have established an active Industry Advisory Panel to keep abreast of improved construction methods and technologies used in the private sector;
We have developed standard embassy designs covering small, medium and large posts, shortening construction time and reducing costs.

The Capital Security Construction Program is already a major success, giving U.S.G. personnel at our overseas posts safe, secure and modern facilities in which to work. When terrorists attacked Istanbul, Turkey last year, they chose not to go after the U.S. Consulate, which had moved only a few months earlier to a New Embassy/Consulate Compound (NEC). Had our people still been working in the old facility, they, too, might have been among that sad day’s victims.

Since 1999, we have completed 12 NEC projects, including the new facilities in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam to replace those bombed in 1998. We now have 26 NEC design and/or construction contracts underway throughout the world.

In FY 2004, we will award design and construction contracts for 12 more NECs. In addition, contracts will be awarded for USAID-funded facilities in Conakry, Kampala and Phnom Penh.

FY 2005 funding will support the next round of security design/construction projects in:

Beirut, Lebanon;
Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro;
Bogota, Colombia (annex);
Khartoum, Sudan;
Moscow, Russia (annex);
Mumbai, India;
Quito, Ecuador;
Skopje, Macedonia;
Suva, Fiji.

Contracts for USAID facilities in Bamako, Kathmandu, Kingston and Yerevan will also be awarded in FY 2005.

The Department of State, together with the Office of Management and Budget, has developed the Capital Security Cost Sharing (CSCS) Program to accelerate the construction of secure, safe and functional diplomatic facilities for U.S.G. personnel serving overseas under Chief of Mission authority. The CSCS Program will also encourage all agencies to rightsize their overseas presence by allocating the costs of embassy construction among all agencies, thus advancing the rightsizing initiative in the President’s Management Agenda. (Currently, other agencies contribute only to the operating costs of facilities and not to the capital cost of U.S.G.-owned diplomatic facilities that their personnel use.)

The Program is projected to generate $17.5 billion over 14 years (FY 2005 through FY 2018). Actual contributions by the Department of State and other agencies will be phased in over five years beginning in FY 2005. The Program will accelerate funding for 150 urgently needed, secure, safe and functional embassies and consulates by cutting the projected time to complete the funding from 26 to 14 years.

Program costs are to be allocated annually to each agency on the basis of total number of authorized overseas positions operating under Chief of Mission authority. The Department of State and the International Cooperative Administrative Support Services (ICASS) will also receive allocations. ICASS-associated charges will then be distributed to all agencies, based on their percentage use of ICASS services.

We continue to undertake major facility upgrades, as well as carry out routine maintenance and repairs. Major upgrades, maintenance and life/safety improvements -- $626 million -– preserve the Department’s overseas assets, increase security and improve functionality and working conditions. OBO has initiated an innovative program to address the persistent backlog of overseas maintenance needs, particularly at isolated posts. We call this the Wellness Program, and through this effort, we devote $2 million at selected posts each year, giving priority to safety and quality of life issues. OBO, in conjunction with Consular Affairs, has also undertaken a Consular Improvement Initiative to provide increased functionality and operational improvements for our consular sections. The FY 2005 request also includes $27 million to continue to protect “soft targets” overseas, including schools attended by U.S. Government dependents, recreation association and residential facilities.

Within the request for Embassy Security, Construction and Maintenance, funding of $785.3 million is for capital security construction projects of which $162.6 million is for State’s share of the Capital Security Cost Sharing (CSCS) Program. With $83.7 million in anticipated cost sharing contributions from other agencies, the Department will have $869 million to build new embassy and consulate compounds.

Resources

For FY 2005, the Department will continue to devote a significant portion of our budget request to key resource management areas, including:

President’s Management Agenda

Secretary Powell and we are committed personally and professionally to advancing the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). The Under Secretary for Management serves as the Secretary’s representative to the President’s Management Council and meets monthly with the representatives from other agencies to review progress.

The Office of Management and Budget, which manages the process, uses a “traffic light” system of red, yellow and green to rate agencies’ accomplishments in five specific areas: Human Capital, Competitive Sourcing, Improved Financial Performance, E-Government and Budget and Performance Integration. As with all other departments, the Department of State started out in the “red” in all five categories. We have made steady progress over the past two years. We now score “green” for progress in four of the five and “yellow” for progress in the fifth (Competitive Sourcing). Our baseline scores also improved in 2003. Those scores are now yellow in Budget and Performance Integration, Improved Financial Performance and Human Capital. We still have red baseline scores in E-Government and Competitive Sourcing.

Rationalizing Overseas Presence

The Department defines rightsizing, in agreement with the General Accounting Office (GAO-02-780 Overseas Presence: Framework for Assessing Embassy Staff Levels Can Support Rightsizing Initiatives, p. 1, July 2002), as the process of aligning the number and location of staff assigned overseas with foreign policy priorities, security and other considerations. Rightsizing may result in the addition or reduction of staff, or a change in the mix of staff at a given embassy or consulate.

The FY 2004 Appropriations Act requires the Department of State to establish an Office of Rightsizing the U.S.G.’s Overseas Presence and mandates a review of the staffing of overseas missions. We have established this new office, reporting directly to the Under Secretary for Management. We will continue to consult closely with the Congress as we move forward on rightsizing.

The priority focus right now is the planning for the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The Department is working with other U.S. agencies to develop a staffing plan for the Embassy. Rather than staff Baghdad in a “business as usual” fashion, we will build on our ongoing regionalization reengineering efforts to minimize Iraq staffing, providing as many support activities as possible from “remote” locations such as Amman, Jordan, Frankfurt, Germany, or the United States. We do not see this as simply a stop-gap measure until Baghdad can become a “normal” embassy. It is our intention that this is the way we will conduct business there permanently, with the objective of applying this approach to other posts in the future.

As part of our Frankfurt Creekbed facility project, the Department of State and the Office of Management and Budget are conducting a rigorous review of about 400 overseas regional offices to determine which might return to the United States or move to Creekbed when that facility opens.

The Capital Security Cost Sharing Program discussed earlier is a major component of the Administration’s interagency rightsizing strategy.

Conclusion

Between the two of us, Under Secretary Green and I have now visited more than 75 of our overseas diplomatic and consular posts. We can state without hesitation that all American citizens can be proud of the people who are representing them abroad. The men and women of the Department of State truly are America’s first line of defense and offense and they deserve our moral and material support. This is especially clear in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq, where our people face dangerous and difficult circumstances every day. While those two countries present an extreme in our operations, the fact is that our workforce is active in locations all over the world that may be unsafe, unhealthy or dangerous. In all circumstances, however, we find a consistent level of dedication and hard work.

The men and women of the Department of State deserve all the support we can give them, just as we support our men and women in uniform. As long as the Secretary is leading the Department of State and we are in our jobs, we will continue to do our very best to give them the tools they need to do their jobs.

Mr. Chairman, we look forward to working with you as we address together the challenges facing the Department of State. With your support, the management initiatives we have outlined will allow us to continue to build on our efforts of the past three years. We would be happy to answer any questions you and the other members of the Subcommittee have on our budget request and our plans.
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Released on March 11, 2004



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