Also want to thank the witnesses for being accommodating knowing vote scheduled interfered with the original hearing schedule and accommodating us today. The topics covered in this hearing and i said this previously are not necessarily what is going to make cable news every night but incredible importance when we think of how best to serve the United States of america, our interests and Foreign Policy and the foundation for any real Successful Organization always starts with the right people and make sure they are equipped with the right resources and ability to do their job effectively. I said multiple times previously and want to reiterate we are proud of the men and women that serve us in our diplomatic corps overseas and in Development Work around the world and these are patriotic americans. I once again want to reiterate the work of how important it is for foreignpolicy and american strength. The last few months as subcommittees chairman i had the pleasure of meeting with many individuals in the Current Administration and also prior administrations, republicans and democrats who care about the work of state department and usaid. I want to thank you for taking the time to meet with us and ambassador green and others from usaid. We agree when thinking about our operational effectiveness we want to make sure we are appropriately resourcing state and usaid and giving them the tools and when we think about that the administrations budget is a reflection of those priorities and i have concerns about the budget request which includes the 8 cut in diplomatic programs for Embassy Security accounts. As we think about the world we are in, our Development Work did serve us well in the postworld war ii and cold war world but we know we are in a new world and as we think about budget priorities, personnel, programming efficiencies and expertise we really do have to make sure we are giving those men and women the tools to succeed in the 21st century and we know those challenges are vast, when large demographics shift to fragile states in Subsaharan Africa so the threat is increasingly complex landscape, we could focus on traditional countries and global powers. We know now we have other emerging threats and nonstate actors to be conscious and nimble in addressing. We also know in the era of cybersecurity we have to equip the workers at the state department with the right it systems to assure there is appropriate data flows and protection of that information. One thing as we do questioning, i have had concerns about persistent vacancies for career state employees that have been identified in multiple gao reports not just in this administration but prior administrations as well and those persistent vacancies put challenge and stress on existing workforce that leads to lower more row and less efficient productivity and i talked to mike pompeo about that as well. That is something we will want to talk about. We also talked about how to retain the best and brightest. The secretary when he was in front of the full Committee Talks about his efforts, it is a sought after field to sell to it is incredibly important, you are in charge of executing so we can talk about that a little bit as well. Congress in oversight capacity is a partner with administration, authorizing and appropriating funds, doing full attention to the personnel before resources to those folks, certainly that is something we have talked about to make sure the folks we are sending are equipped to be successful. I look forward to working with the Ranking Member and democratic and republican subcommittee members and witnesses to ensure the American People are served by the best outcomes for free leadership for decades to come and recognize Ranking Member zeldin for Opening Statement. Men and women who work in the state department, the ranks are filled with Great American to take the job seriously, they take their roles professionally, making america proud. For the state department and usaid, important for the support they have from congress and oversight, fulfilling Constitutional Responsibilities and in bipartisan fashion this committee should work to ensure transparency and accountability at these agencies. The secretary and administrator affiliation, the state department and usaid, falling Critical Missions at home and around the globe. The state department and usaids mission is ensuring Financial Resources to qualify Human Resources. The state department has had tremendous foreignpolicy accomplishments in pursuit of the effective foreignpolicy for american exceptionalism Standing Shoulder to shoulder with allies like israel with iranian aggression and more. We are encouraged by state Department Efforts to efficiently review and illuminate or fill many special envoy positions and encouraged to see an incoming class to fill existing vacancies that are critical to fill. I commend the department wherever and whenever it fulfills its mission. There will always be more to address from budgeting to personnel and foreign aid transparency. We would like to see the most effective Hr Management for employees transparency on assistance programs and efficient management of the budget including large balances. When it comes to hiring and firing of state Department Employees it is a priority of this committee to address any mismanagement allegations, ensuring fairness in the process and sufficient whistleblower protections. Last year a report by the Accountability Office found there is approximately 30 billion at the state department. Understand the need for a Rainy Day Fund moving around millions of dollars between different accounts makes it difficult for congress to conduct proper oversight over funding. This is evidenced by the fact that in the past this has been wrongly used to negotiate with terrorists to facilitate hostage payments. 1. 7 billion in cash was delivered to the iranian as a ransom payment for lease of american prisoners. Congress had no notice or oversight. They must be as forthcoming as possible to do transparent budgets, and the real needs of the American People. We must simply greater accurate oversight and accountability internally in the state department with foreign assistance programs that advance our nations values around the globe. I look forward to your statements and we have tough questions at times, i am sure none you will be incapable of answering. The message we wouldnt want lost for all men and women, how much we appreciate their service to keep america safe. Having visited many, and men and women in uniform, the sacrifice away from that, sometimes 3 or 4 months. You might be be be deployed, a lot of state department usaid officials will tell you about many years, multiple tourism in different cities away from their families so while we appreciate the person in uniform who might be on 10th deployment and the heart is with them and families at home, what should not be lost are the amount of people in your ranks who are thousands of miles away from home oftentimes for an entire career so wherever they are watching us we ask these questions and statements, hopefully their best interests in mind to ensure they have the resources they need to be more successful with their mission. With that i yield back. I am pleased to welcome our witnesses to todays hearing. We are joined by four from usaid. The state department joined by ambassador carol perez who serves as director general of Foreign Service and director of Human Resources. And budget and planning. In usaid, the assistant i will let ambassador perez deliver are putting remarks. Thank you distinguished members of the subcommittee. For inviting me to discuss the fiscal state Department Budget request. As mike pompeo noted we have a remarkable workforce doing an important mission. At a time of growing global complexity, a strong the parent is critical to our success as a nation. Over the past year we prioritized putting the team back on the field, under his leadership we have 827 Foreign Services employees and our Foreign Service and civilservice target staff at 454 employees above the december 31, 2017, Staffing Levels specified in the congressional appropriations and also stepped up Employee Engagement to communication and taken steps to expand training and professional development, filled vacancies and reward the work they have done. As director general to Foreign Service and director of Human Resources i want to focus my remarks on that request forcing resources and the laporte workforce. Foreign service, civilservice, Family Members, employed staff, the greatest resource and support. These women and men work at home and abroad in service to the country. American personnel to protect the constitution often at great sacrifice to themselves and families. Sometimes this incurs great risk working with other states. Human resource budget request will have 25,000 thomistic and oversee american employees. 14,000 Foreign Services, and specialists doing everything from opening remarks for american companies. Civilservice personnel are the institutional memory, continuity and subject Matter Experts mostly in washington but also our passport security and foreign offices, eligible Family Members are a vital source of talent leveraging their skills is good for more row and a force multiplier. I noted earlier the hiring and staffing on the civilservice side we are on track to be above december 2017 levels specified by congress but it has been slow due to the decentralized nature of civilservice hiring. The fiscal 2020 request, the talent and capacity of our civilservices that is better prepared to address the challenges of the international 50,000 locally employed staff are the mainstay of diplomatic operations abroad and we look at ways to attract and retain the best local talent. Successful organizations share a characteristic they adapt. In order to remain employer of choice we must innovate and compete with the private sector to recruit and empower the best talent. The director of Human Resources, innovation is the key area. And employees can focus on responsibilities. So we can better support our people. And employees have welcomed a recently proposed amendment to the National Defense authorization act of 2020 providing all federal employees with 12 weeks and and its time has come. And a model employer, the career that we love. I would close by saying the 70,000 Strong Department workforce is a winning investment. I look forward to answering your questions. Distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for discussing the budget request. As mike pompeo noted our budget is designed around a National Security strategy for policy goals. Top line request, 40 billion combined in position to do that. The funding protect citizens at home and abroad for american prosperity and values and supports allies and proceedings. We make this request mindful of the burden on american taxpayers to deliver exceptional results. I will focus my remarks on 13 billiondollar engagement operations request managed by the department of state which my colleagues do. This configures the budget request for 2020 for the personal resources past or present the diplomacy programs, local Management Platforms, embassy construction, security and assess contributions to the national organizations. This request has an area of an increase from administrations request, 3 growth rate but it would be 15 below the Amount Congress enacted in 2019. We summitted for the record the budget fact sheet for the record of numbers in the request for the major priorities. The appropriated funding managing the department for 5 million in diplomatic staffing operations, 5. 4 billion for personnel overseas and 2. 1 billion for contributions with other organizations. Funding for diplomatic staffing and programs like the ambassador mentioned, the budget request sustaining staffing at or above current levels consistent with the direction of the current appropriation. We may continued investments in d filament as well as support for Public Diplomacy programs with foreign opinion and encountering this information in the United States. Highlights in this request including new consolidated bureau of Public Affairs with efficiency and effectiveness for programs and outreach including request of 75 million as authorized by the in ea, an increase in appropriated funds over current levels. The Management Platform includes increases to support new embassies scheduled to open up and this category also underwrites most of the Information Technology funding for the new chief Information Officers efforts to modernize Information Technology and consolidated Software Licensing and Customer Engagement in the it platform. 5. 4 billion request for personnel, security primarily for building operations. Highlights include a 60 million increase for cybersecurity, 38 increase over current levels to help increase Cyber Security programs and protect network data and it infrastructure and request the bureau of medical services for countermeasures to encounter potential threats. In addition to direct appropriations, 3. 8 billion of fees we collect from passports for overseas citizens and issue passports to american citizens as well as services to americans overseas. We anticipate collecting 3. 9 billion in revenues and this is an area we are looking at ways for additional views of technology and personnel to operate our services. Our request includes minor fee adjustments to address structural imbalances and Revenue Streams that we have to discuss. I want to assure you we are committed to using taxpayer dollars effectively with continued support to advance our Foreign Policy at home and abroad and i will answer your questions. Thank you. Mister chairman distinguished members of the subcommittee thank you for inviting me to discuss the fiscal year 2020 operating expenses Capital Investment fund. I will summarize statements from Mister Leavitt and myself. I have been impressed by the agency of dedication to delivering solutions to uplift the most Vulnerable People representing American Values and advancing Foreign Policy and National Security interests. Administrator Greens Division for professional experts, local organizations to aid in their journey. For fiscal year 2020 the request to support the agencys Global Operations is almost 1. 5 billion which includes 1. 3 billion for operating expenses, 600 million per salary and benefits for direct hire staff, 198 million for the Capital Investment fund. Us aid recognize Agency Successes for skilled, committed and resilient workforce for human elements that support 21stcentury workforce such as prioritizing recruitment and updating archaic personnel systems and expanding opportunities for workforce programs like donald Payne International Development Fellowship program. Our success such as they are, debuting new employee portal, the redesign of employee Performance Management streamlining Foreign Services and Staff Care Program described in Mister Leavitts testimony. Usaid request 19 million staff and facilities, at headquarters usaid implanted Washington Real Estate strategy which is modernizing dated workspaces and technology while consolidating shortterm leases from four buildings into two with anticipated savings of 2,500,000 x 2025. The agency has become a leader in federal modernization and enhanced Cyber Security protections. 143 million in the operating expenses in Capital Investment funds upgrade Information Technology systems and data platforms. Usaid expects to consolidate multiple Agency Systems through Development Information solutions which would save the agency approximately 2. 2 million. Usaid has used legislation to streamline budget execution thanks to the cro, statutory authority, and to implement other measures since being realigned to report to the administrator. In december the administrator announced a 0tolerance policy for backlogs. The agency had 42 open recommendations and 840 open oig recommendations at the top of which almost 100 were in backlog. We cleared the backlog ahead of schedule by may 2018 allowing us to reach the first Agency Transformation bill. Usaid is leader of the federal government managing agency and one of only 5 cso agencies to achieve the highest score of risks for all five functions in the Risk Management assessment. Additionally the agency adopted an enterprise Risk Management framework, a key principle of approach to the implementation, the agencys risk statement which provide staff with broadbased guidance on the type of risk the agency has. In fall of 2018 we released our acquisition and assistance strategy, honing in on engagement and reform to expand local partner rates. We launched the new Partnership Initiative to make it easier for underutilized partners for work with us. We seek support for the agencys request to establish acquisition and assistance working capital fund and adaptive personal projects. The acquisition and assistance working capital fund, similar to state Department Model which would provide consistent funding stream dedicated to management and oversight that would commit the agency to align and balance the workforce to match evolving policies and priorities. As part of the effort to implement modernizing Government Technology act of 2017 the capital Fund Transfer of authority would allow us to obtain consistent funding to support important it requirements. Usaid is looking for transfer authority to implement a pilot of adaptive personal project allowing us to use Program Funding to hire term limited Civil Service personnel as discussed in the capital officers written testimony. With your support, the agency of request for these authorities usaid will use appropriate resources for the holistic standard. These authorities provide necessary for. Respond to the urgent complex and humanitarian crises as well as operational resources to respond quickly. Your continued support means we will remain equipped to work with partners to journey to selfreliance. We look forward to answering your questions. Thank you, mister nutt and Mister Leavitt. I will turn to my opening questions and then recognize the Ranking Member for the purposes of questioning the witnesses. I will recognize myself. My Opening Statement, when i had a chance to meet, i got the secretary, secretary pompeo, im deeply concerned about the drop in more row at state department and as i noted states quickly falling to the bottom of the polls, the best federal agencies to work at. I talked about the gao report, part of that certainly is the chronic vacancies the stress and pressure that puts on existing workforce, we have to pick up the workload for others and that is of some concern, how we address that. You have seen that in prior administrations. The other concern is weve seen the registration for the Foreign Service officer test. They saw a decline between october 2017 and october 2018. We are still getting qualified folks taking the test that there is concern, the nbc news report suggests fewer people were taking the test. I know you are in charge of implementing mike pompeos new state department the those. What i would like to ask the initial question, what does this new ethos mean in practice . How will it boost more row, make the state department more attractive to the next generation of workforce and help us recruit and retain and outside of additional training what does implementation look like . Thank you for that question is i would like to touch on some of the other comments you made in your Opening Statement . The ethos statement is a short and powerful statement that embodies the values the department has had for many years and we have a variety of places and never had a statement, something everybody could look to and understand. The other thing that struck the secretary was we dont have a common way to chair our culture. Foreign Service Officers come in classes. You immediately have a group of anywhere from 4080 people who Learn Together and understand the department to gather. It is a Civil Service 1week Orientation Course and there is no timeline for that. Political appointees dont get any training. The idea of the ethos to take these values put into a statement everybody could understand and recognize, we are rolling out a Training Course this year and the idea to bring everybody together whether or not you are a civil servant, Foreign Service officer, political appointee or Family Member you would have an opportunity to sit down together and talk about what it means to work for the best hermetic team in the world and we never had that so that is the intent and the idea is when people understand that they will have a better understanding of their colleagues. We need to Work Together like this. It may not happen to people just joining lauren younger ranks. That is the intent of the east coast. Let me talk a bit about the feds and then go on to the gao report. I think the federal Viewpoint Survey is an incredible tool for managers and institutions to use because it allows us to drill down to a unit level and look at issues employees care about so that might be accountability, how we reward people. We are up 10 Percentage Points over last year, 40 of our population completed that. There was a huge push on our part because what we will do is make sure people get the resources and there is a conversation between leadership and employees about where the department is and where we need to improve. Finally on the gao report, the report took data from 2018 which was before mike pompeo arrived but it talks about the fact that we had vacancies for ten years. Part of that is the fact that we rotate jobs all the time, have people in training so theres always a little bit of a gap for that. We are trying to be as creative as possible to fill those vacancies. It is not necessary that we need more Foreign Service officers or specialists but to use our Family Members to the extent we can or like the counselor fellows program, to use hard to fill exercises, rotational opportunities to Work Overseas to fill those gaps. The other thing we will do is make sure we are focused on making sure those that are under stress, we have the ability to respond to that. I will make sure you guys have extra time to ask followup questions. One thing, the chronic vacancies, aware of president ial instruction, to the embassies commissions requiring chief submissions to take a look at these chronically vacant positions that have been vacant longer than two years. I have not seen the fool cable but every agency with personnel like cdc, dhs has been outside identified existing vacancies and to discuss whether or not these vacancies with the ambassador, with those physicians that are not filled, any organizations that tried to take a look and say does this position need to exist. Ambassador perez, can i get your commitment to provide my staff with that, so we can take a look at it as well . I am not sure i had seen that cable but we will provide it to you. I will yield back. I will recognize the Ranking Member for 5 minutes. Secretary pompeo emerged the Public Affairs which will save money and better online resources for the mission of the department but congress has been informed there is a lot of duplication in terms of Human Resources and executive support functions that could be eliminated. If you could speak to whether states are looking at this issue in an effort to make it more efficient . I was aware of the feedback we received when we put forward the proposal and we committed to taking a look at the overall support structure for those bureaus, we look at the organization to realign the positions and resources, we are moving to fsi, as well as the secretarys office to complete the reorganization is initially notified so that is in place by the end of the year so staffing structure is in place as we start fiscal year 2020 and based on experience, what additional opportunities for consolidation there are staffing gaps so we are mindful the same staff, looking to rationalize those functions, going through the details of the staffing numbers. Week are committed to look at that. Hr bureau working with the Diplomacy Team is looking at that is an issue but were making sure we complete the actions and come back with a potential proposal down the road. How is it going so far . The Ambassadors Team is making progress. We are prepared, the resources we are aligning, by the end of fiscal year so we can start fiscal year 20. There is a tiger team. Certainly my bureau, the hr bureau, National Policy bureau is not just on the Public Diplomacy side. We regularly meet with the team and make sure we are providing the management side and the staff working in the new bureau for us the we are supporting and we are pleased with the progress but planning to update the land committees by the end of this year and we are aware of interests in the support function. Thank you. Ambassador perez, to walk us through a little bit of the current state of the hiring and firing process, we hear of individuals, rumors that get leaked to the media, generally fill us in on the process but specifically there was a video that came out, do you know stuart car off a cute you a video of a state employee cant of the antitrump opposition and his job is to, quote, resist everything and every level. He said, quote, i have nothing to lose, it is impossible to fire federal employees . He talked about doing political work in his cubicle. Are you familiar with this case at all . I have seen the same story but im not intimately familiar with that case. If you look us through, the hypothetical. How state handles cases like this, how hard is it what additional tools do you need . You are talking broadly how we deal with performance and contact issues and we have an office within hr called conduct suitability and discipline the you will note in our budget request for 2020 we have asked for a doubling of the number of analysts in that office. We did benchmark the federal agencies and generally theres one suitability analyst for every 500 employees in an agency, we have one for every 2000. Thats the reason for the doubling. It puts us that 50 of the staffing we should have but it is important to start to move in this direction. We follow all the principles employees have. In personnel systems under title 5, 22, we file those to make sure the agency has an opportunity to do the appropriate whatever they do in terms of combat issues and protections the employee has because they are very important and we work closely with the office of civil rights and Inspector General, Diplomatic Security, they are the people who send us most of our cases and do the investigations, provide us with information and it comes with this division in my bureau, responsible for sitting down, doing this review and making recommendations about appropriate discipline. This may be better than if we send you information to outline this because its different for two groups of employees. Im going to yield back but there will be a second round so it might pick up where we left off. Mister blue mister lieu is recognized for five minutes. Thank you for your long history of public service. I would like to ask about the lack of diversity, my questions are not intended to assign blame, democratic and republican, it is somewhat worse with this administration. Im trying to understand what the issues are and how to mitigate them. Based on percentages, it does show there is a lack of minorities in Foreign Service. The senior level, decline for africanamericans, 4. 6 in december 2016, 3 in march, my first two questions, why are the percentages so low for minorities in the state department and what is the state department doing to try to make that better . Thank you for that question. There are a couple things that have happened. First of all the federal agencies were not focused on diversity 15 or 20 years ago or 25 years ago so what you see is a reflection of the hiring practices we had back then. When i is a Foreign Service officer people look at me, a female officer, not an ethnic minority but i consider myself a minority still, we have lack of women in the Senior Service because 25 years ago there wasnt emphasis placed on trying to attract women into the Foreign Service. That is part of the issue at senior ranks. Because the numbers are small, if somebody retires, somebody leaves our percentage has dropped significantly so you see some of that. We have done a much better job over the last ten years or so. We try our hardest. We have a network of 26 recruiters, 16 all over the United States. They are there to recruit for diversity. We want diversity in the broader sense, race, gender, ethnicity, diversity in terms of geography. Not necessarily everybody goes to the east coast or grows up on the east or west coast. I am from the midwest and went to a Small College and managed to succeed because i was given wonderful opportunities by the government. We are trying our hardest. That is our front line of defense or offense i should say to go out and make sure we are in touch with those populations. Our fellowship programs are extremely popular. These are the for fellowships. Last year to this year, a number of applicants, 1600 for 60 positions. In the case of the pickering it was 170 increase over last year. In the case of the wrangells a 50 increase over a 50 increase so our fellowship opportunities still an incredible source for us, they increase the rate of diversity hires since they started by 29 which is significant. We are looking at other ways we might have more fellowship programs. We want to do this for our specialists because the honest truth is we have a robust register of americans who would like to be Foreign Service officers. It is tough on the special aside. We are looking at things like how to do it fellowships which would mirror those but looking to increase diversity inside the department, part of it is recruitment any of the parties retention and for retention we are doing a couple things. We started an unconscious bias course which we are suggesting hiring managers, people sitting on our promotion panels so they understand what unconscious bias is and how it affects people, have an online course available by the end of the year at which point they will roll it out to the workforce worldwide and we have a study from the Cox Foundation that will look at barriers to the senior ranks for various groups of people going out there now, women, minorities, that was funded by the Cox Foundation. We hope to have some answers by the end of december. I want to look at the entry and the barriers before entry. We need to understand that better and to make sure do people feel included . It is not just diversity. It is inclusion. Somebody said to me diversity is party and inclusion is when you get invited to dance. We want to make sure everybody is dancing. Thank you. Let us know how to be helpful. Can i add to the question . Usaid is aggressive with regards to diversity initiatives. Our Hallmark Program is the Pain Fellowship Program which brings an incredible talent to Foreign Service particularly from groups not historically represented in international developments. We have been working with our Pathways Internship Program to make significant minority representation. In addition to the Diversity Outreach Program and engagement we had with universities around the country, we are looking deeply into the way we manage our own process promotions, assignments for Foreign Service officers to make sure we train everyone in implicit bias as well as well as looking deeply at our demographics and who is at what level in career service. Really testing ourselves to make sure we are adequately represented at all levels and will follow up with you on the results of our analysis. We appreciate the information. The gentleman from pennsylvania, is recognized to question the witness for 5 minutes. My questions go to mister pitkin and mister nutt initially. Im looking at the white house balance authority document, total unexpended balances by agency. At the end of 2017, 24, 686, at the end of 2018, 27022 and this is in millions. It is projected at the end of 2019, and wondering what happens to that and how you account for those funds at the end of the year. I think we recognize that the department, to operate Global Programs and Global Platforms our appropriations have given us multiyear authority with larger more complex programs. That is our overseas billing operations which maintains our overseas Maintenance Programs and Fiscal Authority to make sure we are fully funding project upfront, when we start a new project we budget for that project and those funds are needed. On the line item for construction and maintenance account, that balance runs from 6 8 billion a year reflecting projects that are approved, notified to congress and put the money committed to the project but dont obligate until we incur contract obligation and meet standard test for fiscal commitment and resources. That is a good chunk of the department programs. Similarly a feebased agency collect as i noted earlier 3 million annually. They spend money as it comes in. Typically we are rolling over 2 billion from one year to the next because we have the money in hand expended on personal contract and payroll. It is different when we typically have an annual cycle. Similarly, security to the worlds protection counts, the appropriation and one of the areas it spend its money on is guide Services Contract to provide armed forces overseas and often a performance of 18 months, ds is managing multiple contract given time. They are not as prone to moving money to the procurement pipeline in the last few days of the year so for the department at least it is those major categories of appropriations based on authorization appropriation for extended, we manage yearbyyear but it does relieve the end of your balances you noted. The percentages are lower on the accounts of single euro appropriations for core operative accounts and diplomatic programs, much more limited authority so lower balance there. It depends on the account. Education and cultural programs are awarded at the end and beginning of the year. There are balances there as well. We track at the end of the year, submit quarterly reports to committees the track account by account showing those balances. I meet with my team every month to go through appropriations. A particular balance, levels are spiking up, we work with the relevant bureaus and financial staff to see if there is something amiss in the underlying spin rate. The percentages are in historical norms but it is a reflection of our operating environment and receiving appropriations in may and february, we appreciate that is part of the dynamic and to a certain extent that authority gives us more flexibility execute resources once appropriated by congress. Everything you said makes sense to me though i question, the building funds for lack of a better phrase or term 2 billion annually but we are talking i am looking at 24 billion, 27, 23 so lets be generous and say 20 billion extra. All the other stuff seems like not enough to account for 20 billion. Do you reconcile that down to 0 every single year . We reconcile that, track it down for each appropriation, work on unliquidated obligations that have not been spent. We are in the midst of it as we go to the Fourth Quarter to reconcile and find out where those balances can be corrected and certainly something our auditors and the office of Inspector General focus on so it is part of getting the audit to focus on those balances. It goes by program by program approach, the operational activism as well as our assistance programs whether it is fmf, a member of multiyour authorities as well. We are working closely with partners overseas and congress to ensure those programs are spent for the purpose congress intends. We can account for all that but the dynamics are different depending on what the spending is. Is there ever an opportunity where they are not obligated and something changes where they would not be obligated for the intent that congress had and would not be used . If there is a particular case where the administration has an active transfers of balances there was a decision of 300 million of the protection funds for Diplomatic Security that was not provided in the supplemental based on conditions on the ground and the fed rate, a recognition that some of those balances could be rescinded for this year. Certainly in my tenure going back to post benghazi period we identified 1 billion for operations particularly in iraq for Security Operations and the rest of the world. When we had the opportunity to do that, to return funds to the treasury or create offset for another priority of shared interest we do that as well. Thank you, time is expired. We have a little bit of time. I appreciate you coming to the hill. We do a second round of questions and i recognize myself for five minutes. Let me direct questions to mister levitt Mister Leavitt. Usaid operates in an agreement and you respond to every humanitarian requirement and increasingly complicated world. I applaud the outstanding work the workforce does and also know that us aids personnel system is equally complex and has a multitude of hiring mechanisms and as a result our best people serving hardship hosts dont often qualify or have to quit and reapply for jobs every two years. What are the Things Congress could do to simplify these mechanisms . Thank you for your question, chairman bera. It is an honor to work with our colleagues in support what they do around the world. On our side we have a complex workforce. Employees who work under multiple mechanisms with multiple authorities. It is not unusual for one to manage on four different mechanisms. It is an inefficient process. On our side we do request your support for adaptive personal projects, adaptive personal project seeks a pilot 300 positions for health workers, for humanitarian workers and those working in crisis situations. What we are looking for his transfer authority so that we can make this pilot ever the reality. With this might let us do is rely less on our other employment mechanisms in order to best support our workforce, particularly those working in difficult environments. In addition to that we do request transfer authority for it workforce working capital fund. We request the authority to establish a working capital fund for acquisition and assistance. These requests for capital working funds and it as well as adaptive personal project is critical for us being adaptive and agile in response to needs worldwide. When you and i met and we talked about how, those midcareer employees, the 3540yearolds who our next generation senior diplomats, at the demands of repeated postings overseas, for someone who may want to start a family, we ask the private sector to provide paid family leave yet we dont do it for our personnel. You touched on it. Can you talk about what Something Like that would mean for those midcareer folks and the morale as well as our ability to retain the staff level . Yes. They give very much mr. Chairman. As we discussed when we met before one of the things i did when it came on board five months ago was to step up engagement. We have this portal will be as peoples that is a district we received over 400. We launched if may 15. The vast majority when the look at workplace issues, this is all the retention, making the state department the best workplace possible, things about paid parental leave. Generally coming from issues these are relatively new employees. They do not have enough time in federal service to at sick leave, two of annual leave. We obviously allow people to advance, to advance leave up to a year at a time according to the rules and regulations but its just not enough. We have a lead bank of many of the agency to account but you have to be out of the lead before you can get leave paid. 12 weeks would be ideal in order to have families be together. I raise three children in the Foreign Service and its topic we are away from our family of support systems. When you move everyone to to three years, you have to system. This is something our workforce were really greatly appreciate. Great. Again, in the a that will be voting on does have 12 weeks of paid family leave for federal employees. Look forward to getting to work with you on that. With that of recognize the Ranking Member for five minutes to question witnesses. Thank you, mr. Chair. Ambassador perez, picking up on where we had left off, with regards to stewart corroborative is a something we can follow up with after this hearing . Would just like to know more details as far as what happened in that case. Did he get administrative leave . How long did it take to fire him. Is that a commitment speed i had some information because of this crackerjack staff pick there must be watching the saints of the did send me something. My apologies. I mustve happened about the time right. I dont know the exact date so i was not personally involved. This individual at a security clearance suspended immediately after we became aware of the incident and after that he reside. Had he not comfortable mexican wouldve continued investigation and he wouldve been suspended without his clearance on that investigation was concluded. After that investigation was concluded that it wouldve beep to my office to determine what the appropriate discipline would have been and could been anywhere from a reprimand to suspension to removal. But because his security clearance was suspended immediately he opted to reside and that was the end of that investigation. Thank you. Are you familiar with a person named i met her once. She was an assistant secretary of the bureaus in the building. She still longer at the state department . Yes. Do you know anything about why she is not there anymore . I do not become responsible for career Foreign Service not for political appointments. Thats have by office of white house liaison. Marie stahl, familiar with the case . Im aware of the name but she was again another employee, noncareer employee. The division is that im responsible for career, but not for the noncareer. So the office of white house liaison would have knowledge. Got it. So stewart case would be 100 jurisdiction, the others outside your trust diction . Correct, because he was a career employee at the department. We already have said 5000 of those, when you include our local staff, ff noncareer appointments are handled separately from an office. One quick followup on Stuart Karaffa case. As you went to the hypothetical if yet not resign, would you expect him to have been removed at the end of that process, or do you think he wouldve stayed at the end of that process . Lets say you have a democratic president and, you know, a very conservative state Department Staff for you have a republican president and a very liberal staff, staffer, and they are quite rebellious, you know, speaking out on a comp implement their own vision and mission. Whats the message through the ranks when that happens . Is that something that result in a termination, or is that something the result in less than termination . I been in Foreign Service for well over 31 years, and the message to everyone is we are here to support the American People. And ive worked for both republican and democratic administrations, and that that seniorlevel positions in both. This is what we do because we support the interest of the American People. Thats not to say there are individual employs the do things like this individual did, and its a problem. I think its a bigger problem now when we have social media that is just 24 7. Colin powell promised internet to the desktop that my Newark College cant imagine. For us, this is why i think a Statement Like the ethos is important. It recognizes those values that are critical for us here again, this is the best of medic team and war combat so we need. It talks about defending the constitution and serving proudly and unfailing professionalism. Those all things i grew up with and thats what i tried to tell my team when i travel and have the opportunity to cover quite a bit. This is the most rewarding job in the world, but we have to Work Together. We have to pull together the at the end of the its not about us. Its about the American People. Thats why it was important in my opening remarks this happens in every agency incumbent come out of govett, what should it be lost in a backandforth will have to do is your ranks are filled with amazing americans which would make up nearly 100 . Maybe its not 100 but its nearly that. You do have great men and women that shouldnt be lost. Do you happen to know if, how long it was before mr. Karaffa resigned . She didnt give me that ttip but well get back to. Do you know if he was suspended with pay . He resigned. We will get you the timeline. She just says here that his security clinch was suspended immediately and then he was on. I dont know if that happened in a day or two days or three days but we will get that 40. Im glad we had a second round. You pointed out you have crackerjack staff and you are saying that in the most positive way. I appreciate the more detailed answers they were able to give with regard to the hiss case and thank you again to the chairman for holding todays rancor i just back. Let me recognize the gentlelady from minnesota, ms. Omar can question witnesses for five minutes. Thank you chatman. Thank you all, to the Ranking Member, and thank you all for being here. I wanted to chat a little bit with you, mr. Nutt. One of the come one of your aids publicly stated missions is promotion of greater Economic Opportunities for women throughout the world. But in reality that the work that this administration has done and some of the policies that it is pushing for has been detrimental to womens prosperity and empowerment and a whole host of ways. Theres a wealth of economic research, academic research, showing us that gains in womens education and employment can be attributed to increasing access to contraception. That access has given millions of women control over their future and better enable them to participate in workforce and contribute both to local and global economies. And so im wondering if you contentless have a policy priority that we have in our mission makes sense in regards to the proposed cuts the Family Planning that your department is putting forth . I have not been briefed on that particular matter at this point. I know the administration, the administrator has been pushing an initiative to push out the implementation and the programs of usaid down to the more local level and to the betterment of people in country. But i cant speak to your immediate question, but i can take that question for the record. Wonderful. Mr. Leavitt, did you have speeders as my colleague has answered we will follow up with many details, details that will demonstrate the breadth and extent of our basic Education Programs and higher Education Programs around the world, and how in many cases they prioritize access to education to girls, two young women, that we fans entrepreneur programs, economic livelihood types of programs in support of girls and women. So we have a wealth of programs that help advance no, thats what im dandy. My question was investment in Family Planning and the opportunities to have access to contraception and how we know that there is so Much Research that gives family the village of advancement when the girls and the women in the family have an ability to and education and enter the workforce. And we look for to follow up with you with details. Wonderful. Ambassador, i wanted to follow up with the question earlier and diversity in hiring, promotion and retention. You had mentioned earlier that you wanted to take a broad definition of diversity, and i wanted to see whos included within that definition. Are we including people with disabilities . Okay. Is that a yes . Im sorry, congresswoman. Yes, that is a yes. Does that include the Lgbt Community . Yes, it does. Doesnt include religious minorities . Religious minorities are protected under the civil rights code, so yes. And arbitrarily collecting that data for this category . So that Data Collection is done on a volunteer basis which has always been one of the struggles. People had to self identify and we do not i believe collect on all this. I will have to get back to you because im not sure. Do you think its helpful for us to collect this data . Does that inform us in some sort of way to ensure we are able to diversify and promote and retain people . I think sometimes it would. For example, i chair the committee that looks at assignments to Principal Office of position and chief admission positions. One of the things we look at is diversity, are we making suree had the most diverse slate of candidates for every position . 12 people sit on the committee. These are seniorlevel jobs. We tend to know a lot of people. Were not that big. Sometimes we know some of his diverse but it may show up on propublica they opted not to do that. Weve left it up to the individual. Sometimes that could hurt statistics of course, and sometimes it somewhat at the table who says i know this candidate is that the first candidate. But we do not have something in place. Im sort of on the fence. I dont want to necessarily push somebody, but yes, it doesnt hurt people sometimes . Obviously we dont have a real active no, i appreciate that and hope that were able to look at it for the reason i ask is i anecdotally here muslims leaving the department because of this administrations perceived hostility towards the Muslim Community or the lgbtq community, leaving because of that perceived hostility, and so i want to make sure that we have the relative, relevant data in regards to retention and see if there are ways that we can make sure that would even with that as we go forth. And those that you mention are some of the most difficult because its not so obvious. And so i think thats also an issue. What i would say more general is that our attrition rates are not very high. They are trending on historical levels. So for entrylevel, im talking Foreign Service now. Thats Civil Service. It is 2 at the midlevel is about 4 . Use this bike is when you get to senior levels but you people that age out. Weve a system that is an upanddown system so that time in service of limitations. Weve not seen much of a difference, i know ive looked at the gender issues but we do keep an eye on that to make sure if theres anything that goes wrong, again trying to understand what the barriers are and making the workforce aware of inclusion, as i said, i think once youre in the door, and i think the inclusion is so important. So to making sure people are aware of what they do and actions and how that affects inclusion. I appreciate that and hope we will have a followup conversation because i think it support for us to have clear protections put in place for religious minorities and other vulnerable communities so that they are able to fully participate in every Single Department within this administration. And i hope the we are able to have the opportunity for us to get the answers to the questions ive asked in regards to Family Planning and how that feeds into the Broader Mission of your department. Thank you. I yield back. Great, thank you. The gentleman from pennsylvania mr. Perry is recognize to question the witnesses. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ambassador, following up on the gentlelady from minnesotas questioning, you conduct exit interviews with the folks that the part the department . Congressman, we do but we dont do for everyone. We do not have requirement right now. We are moving to an Online System so that he will be an easy thing for everyone to do, to exit service when they depart. I used to look good those. Every Foreign Service officer we sunk we send them a letter and thank them for the service. We have the exit service attached to the some people filled the outcome some people didnt. The other important so is completely voluntary . Right. The other thing thats important and we will pilot this early next year, i think we should do stay service. Not only white people the, we need to. Why are people staying what is it thats important about what our organization offers that encourages speedy thats great. Im concerned because theres a supposition that goes with that, the folks are leaving for certain reason, and can you quantify if thats true, if they feel that because this administration is something or something else, thats why the left . Isnt something that can be quantified right here right now. Was not right now because of the voluntary nature of it and because its more tenant penitl exercise. We are looking to make this come as as a set of the an Online System. Right, theres no empirical evidence whatsoever at this time to validate that claim. There might be anecdotal incidents but the store empirical evidence to support that claim . Because we do not have, you know, a system that requires it, we dont have that. Civil servants, in the Foreign Service we have a better handle on who was there and who is not because generally people resign and they may be overseas. We have to bring the back to washington. We probably have better information, better data for Foreign Service officers. Im not sure we doing quite the same on the Civil Service i because its one action at a time one person had come one person the parts. My office doesnt have all those transactions. Its distributed among many, many different bureaus in the department. Its also a question of not just what did i have which would be for Foreign Service but with the rest of the data shows which is the entire department. We have ways to go. At this point time theres no system overall that would capture the kind of information. Was not 100 accurate for the entire workforce. Another question i have is part of the problem with chronic vacancies such as bangladesh is a Foreign Service officers choose not to go there. State has the authority to direct individuals to a post. Do you use that authority . Have you used it and is very case where youre not using it that we should know about or why you wouldnt use it if theres a vacancy but someone that should be or could be directed to the post. As i have used the authority and my five month. Its not use frequently but i do. Partially because where in the point of the cycle, most of our vacancies occur in the summer. People will start to bit bid on position for next year in the fall. We give the average cycle for that assignment is about six months most of the workforce has a job by april. When they dont and it comes time for them to depart their current assignment icer send them letters encouraging them to find a job. If it will come in several directed. When people are unable to find jobs, because a choose not to bid, the wiki director were going a different route. We change something, something called special Incentive Program. What that is, weve always offered incentives for afghanistan, iraq and compensation plans from place to want to go there. We are expanding that. This year because of something new we are going to start with other unaccompanied poster this will include cuba, somalia, Central African republican because again we want to get out of was introduced top places but will stand very are risks. The are not with the family. I dont want to catch up but have limited time. I see your mission similar to my mission over the course of my life in the military, and there were jobs and posts and positions that i desired, right . And am at my command know those things and it worked towards of those things. When the command said thats great, but you going here and you will do this, i would say sir, maam, i would like to loblaw block. They would say thats great. Youre going gray said. And i said roger. I moved out and cut after my business. If youre going to work for the government and serve, and serve, just like i tell young as buying applicants to one of the academies. Understand you here for service. You might think you will be an f18 pilot in the navy. Maybe army think should be a chemical officer. You want to serve or not . Thats the question. We hope that posts are not going unfulfilled because individuals have a particular person decided we did it but its the needs of the country, the needs of the nation that they are agreeing to serve. If they cant follow through with that than it ought to consider maybe a different light of worker with the chairs indulgence one more question for mr. Pitkin. Not that you were present when happen, maybe you were but i think the American People and i wonder when the going to litigate the timing for the coincidence of the payment to iran, but i do wonder where the 1. 7 billion came from. Did he come out of the unobligated funds, or did it what did that come from, do you know . I think we had to go back and check. It did not come from the supremacy resource but other assets. But we can take the back and confirmed that. Yes or if you could, id like to get a confirmation of exactly where it came from and what time and who was involved if you could provide that information. With that, mr. Chair, i yield. Thank you. We each had two rounds a question but if you have additional questions, i would appreciate you taking the time to come up here. If i could perhaps just expand on something mr. Perry talked about. And i think its to the benefit of the members of the committee as well. When we think about state Department Employees, we have to think about them in two distinct backgrounds, the Foreign Service officers versus the civilian employees. And maybe, ms. Perez, ambassador perez, if you could expand on that, the differences that are and how it ought to be thinking about that, if we could just take a quick second. Thank you very much. We do have two completely different systems. The Foreign Service, we have much more flexibility because we have the Foreign Service act of 1980 that were under title 22 and that allows us to go ahead and be much more agile. The Civil Service is not as agile, and sometimes that works against us just because we are a foreign National Security agency. So sometimes its really tough when policies are promulgated that are for the entire government and were a little bit different, but were trying to look our hardest right now. Again, after five months this is one of my three priority areas, civilservice reform. What do we need to do . We want to make sure we keep people in the Civil Service because thats another issue. We dont want people to leave. One of the things were focused on is could we have tracks to promotion for technical specialist, so now youre very limited, you have to go into a supervisor position. A lot of people dont want to do it, not very good at it. Im just about to start that peer we focus on other things first which included the work for support, those kinds of things, and this is the next call to the workforce with their ideas. We are crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing district we want to hear from the workforce to get their best ideas on this. Mr. Leavitt, does usada have the same as well . We also seek to revitalize our civilservice and Foreign Service. In terms of hiring we seek to approximate 175 Foreign Service officers by the end of next year. This year in terms of civilservice we also hope to hire or initiate the hiring process for approximately 200 of those. But in addition to the civilservice and Foreign Service we are very much dependent upon how we implement programs and the funds we received for the purpose, and the multiple mechanisms we have, our vision is to streamline and rationalize them and that is the recommendation of the adaptive personal project. Great. Im using the chairs prerogative again. Following up on earlier question, when the first daughter, ms. Trump, you know, talked about her desire to do womens empowerment in africa and her special program, which is working on, i did also make the point that they wont get the results in terms of empowering women if they dont address the issue of pregnancy spacing, which really is, the academic literature is pretty strong on making contraception and various contraception methods very available, if you want to get the full effect of empowering women and girls. Mr. Pitkin, following up on the end of that back and forth with mr. Perry. Do Foreign Military sales payments get made without going through you at all . Yeah, its a program of course we manage in cooperation with department of defense. And so they show up in the departments of books but because its very much a shared program with dod, in terms of how the sales are recorded between the state and defensible to something we probably had to follow up on to reflect that. I think state general has made the programmatic system side of it, execution details the sort shared dod mission. Its better if we follow up to give a sense of how that the county works. Youve been in your composition for a long time, right . Ive been with the pure about ten years. Ive been the director for four. Have you had any Foreign Military sales payments go out during that time that didnt come through office at all . I would say they generally do not come to my office which i think is why they dont flow through that part of our budget. Again, its a shared program with dod, so its not something my office actively tracks as a program. There have been other times where Foreign Military sales payments that a been made that didnt come through your office . Again, because i dont come to my office in the sense its not so much of it before or after. The programs are really executed as more of an assistance program. Someone, i would have to partially differ to my colleagues in your System Resources and also figure of Political Military Affairs which does work more close with dod on those programs. They could give you a better sense of the accounting of how much that shows up on the dod title ledger versus stateside. Whos the best person for me to talk to at the state department to get an answer on that . We would have to followup but a combination of Political Military Affairs and the foreign assistance resources. Thank you. Thank you. Ill recognize the gentlelady from minnesota. Two quick followups. The Incentive Program that you talked about earlier, is that a new initiative . Congresswoman, what is new about is that we have expanded it outside of the afghanistan iraq pakistan, the war zones, to make sure that we have incentives in other places that are really tough for families to be in right now. But the incentive has we call a special recognition packages. Weve had them in a bright oppose. What were trying to do is have a more standard type of incentive package available yeah. Would you say its been in effect like a decade, two decades . How long in places like someone . No, no. The places you currently have. We probably had this, im try to think. I would guess since 2005, 2006 more or less. Some more than ten years. Many places that people wouldnt go to often go to because of these Incentive Programs, yes . It gives them the places speedy because theyre leaving their families behind. That money is there to support families when they are separated. Right. And for the kind of vacancies that exist now, have those vacancies existed for a year, two, three, five . What is the longest they can see that you know of right now that needs to be filled . I cant answer that because we have 25,000 positions worldwide, and i dont know what that would be. And it really, so is a more vacancies now than lets say three years ago or less vacancies now that three years ago . I would say its probably pretty standard. Thats with the gao study showed at the time the gao study was released secretary pompeo had not come in office and so if we were a little bit short on entrylevel officers it was because we have had the hig freeze and after that we are now well above recouping whatever we wouldve lost in 2017. So using data from then, i dont know. That report did show though its very historic, i talked earlier about the fact because we are in church all the time, the movement, training all these things means your between poster youre not in your old post, not in your new. It could take up a a year to do that. What my office desk is works with the post and peers to make sure we shorten whatever gaps that are to the smallest part possible. And to use the of the kinds of hiring authorities and other kinds of personal that we have in the department to help us staff those gaps. And in regards to the collection of the data for religious minorities or people with lgbtq or disabilities, do you think it is helpful for us to collect that david, to mandate it . You know, i dont know because im not one of those minorities, and i dont know how i would feel. Thats my only concern. What i feel that that is good or bad you think the knowledge of it create i dont know. I dont know how people feel that i can tell you sitting here as a woman i have no problem letting everybody know im a woman. Its kind of hard to hide that. Sometimes people have moved on now to where theyre trying to do gender evaluations and things. As a set we do it on a volunteer basis of the question is there are boxes to check for mail or phenyl. Was absolutely. And for diversity as well. The question is do people check those boxes or not. We dont require it. Any of the boxes . Yeah. So the question is do you make people, the force people to do that or not . Im sorry, personally, this is not the department position. Personally i just dont know. I dont know how i feel about forcing somebody to do an identification data want to do. You talk with lgbtq. With people that are binary, in very different situation. How do we make sure people feel protected works i dont have the answer for you, im sorry, on a personal level. Thats wonderful. We can try to Work Together to find the answers. Im also interested in knowing if the exit surveys would be help for us to figure out a way to get that information so that it is used to inform improvement for the department. Exit surveys will definitely help us as will the state service. The more information we have about why people, more people why people join, why people stay and why they leave is always absolutely useful. I can, im trying to engage with a workforce as much as i can. We put so much effort into our workforce and they put so much into us that we would like to continue the relationship. Obviously the more datadriven we are, the more information when thats better forever. Thank you. May i i add on to the questn with regard to Foreign Service assignments . For usaid, we pull together an incredibly talented group of Foreign Service officers irrespective of rank and position in the agency or location, geographically, and we have significantly reform the way we do assignments overseas and how we imply existing incentives. And as a result of that and the i. T. Tools that we brought to bear in doing so, weve been able to make sure were getting staff to fill our most critical positions overseas. We have found that incredibly helpful for us, to minimize vacancies overseas, particularly for critical positions. With regards to how we motivate staff to stay in agency can we find that federal employment Viewpoint Survey to be incredibly powerful for us and thats what we made that every major opportunity to have an action plan to follow up on the result that they did. And perhaps its tied to that, weve seen over the past four years each of the past four years fewer people say they plan to leave over the next year. Maybe theres something to the lord about the we operate. Thank you. Thank you. Well, i want to thank the witnesses and the members are being here today. With that, the committee is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] tonight on booktv, books on medicine and healthcare. That 8 p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. Saturday on booktv at 7 p. M. Eastern in her latest book our women on the ground, a look at the challenges female arab and middle eastern journalists face while reporting. All of the authors were able to push through whatever barriers had an right will openly open and honest about their deepest struggles. What of ssa comes to mind is, its such a raw and honest account of grief and loss. It also reflects the state of the world today. This isnt an uplifting book. Then send at 7 45 p. M. Eastern Princeton University professor perry on race, gender and class in america. Her most recent book is breathe a letter to my sons. The rally is that i have to arm them not simply with kind of a set of skills and intellectual tools that allow them to floors
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