Digger at Life After Jerusalem ("The musings of a Two-Spirit American Indian, Public Diplomacy-coned Foreign Service Officer") draws our attention to a Washington Post article.
Money quote(s):
"It talks about the difference between the ways military veterans who die in the service of the country and civilian employees who die serving, often in the same places, are treated.
While Congress dictates the way fallen soldiers are treated, it is left to the agency where the fallen civilian worked to decide how, and WHETHER, the employee is honored."
Domani Spero at Diplopundit ("Just one obsessive observer, diplomatic watcher, opinionator and noodle newsmaker monitoring the goings on at Foggy Bottom and the worldwide available universe.") has a locality pay-cut round-up.
Money quote(s):
"There is locality pay for all CONUS states. Why Congress is only targeting the 11,500 Foreign Service workforce is not clear. About 70% are not in the Senior Foreign Service and could be affected by this cut when deployed overseas. I mean really, that's about 7,600 federal employees serving overseas in over 260 posts. Mr. Reed's state is home to some 69,000 federal employees (not counting the feds working for CIA, DIA, NSA and the other "A"s who may be assigned in the state of New York). Look - that's 9 times the Foreign Service number. Imagine the savings there?"
"Could it be because you have "foreign" in your job title? Or it it because you work overseas and is not in real America? And by the way, who knows if you even vote when you are so far away!?!
I think of this as a simple fairness issue. Of course, nothing is ever simple when it comes to money, or politics."
"You folks working overseas apparently do not pay the first $80K of your income overseas. Did you know that? Hah! That IRS has been cheating on FS folks again! It collected every tax penny from your salary including self-employed spouse's annual income of less than $700. If you believe everything you hear, that IRS did not have to collect anything from your $56K + $700 income? Really.
Go ahead and believe that crap, and you might end up sharing a jail cell with whatshisname actor and tax evader.
Foreign Service folks are not/not exempt from paying full federal, state, and Medicare/SS tax on salaries just because they live in Burkina Faso or whatever the name of the hellhole they're presently assigned to. They pay their taxes happily and willingly, 'cuz if they don't, they could get written up for atrocious unlawful uncivic unprofessional behavior, then they won't get promoted, then they get kick out, then they're just part of the 9% unemployment stats."
There's a lot of popular/unpopular mythology and misinformation out there about diplomats, embassies, and the Foreign Service. Such as the erroneous belief that we somehow don't pay federal income taxes.
Not only do we pay federal income taxes, but we pay state income taxes as well, despite the fact that, for instance, I may not have actually lived in my home state for the entirety of the first ten years of my Foreign Service career.
(You're welcome, Old Dominion!)
"(D)espite prevailing belief to the contrary, Uncle Sam's employees overseas are not exempt from paying taxes (unless they're civies at Gitmo). The foreign earned income does not include amounts paid by the United States or an agency thereof to an employee of the United States or an agency thereof. Congress wrote that up. It's the law of the land. And we know that US diplomatic missions are part of that land, even if they are located all over the map, right?
You also -- supposedly ride around town in a $50,000 Cadillac with diplomatic license plates on the bumper like -- let me get this right -- "like you are better than the very citizens you are supposed to be serving." Ouch! Such sparkling prejudice. Really, a Cadillac? That must be the low level Qatari diplomat riding around in his regular car in DC streets. Have not seen any Cadillac at US overseas posts, not saying there's none, just haven't see any from the embassy compounds I've been to. Saw lots of armored Chevy where you can't roll down the windows. In case you think its armored for decoration, I can assure you it's not. It is armored from front to back and have bullet resistant glass because driving/riding around in a USG vehicle overseas is like driving around with a target mark on your back. What? Um, sorry, not target, they're called cross-hairs now. And in case you think this is vehicle security gone mad, it's not that either. See, the US ambassador to Lome got carjacked recently. And the ICE agents in Mexico who were recently killed/wounded in Monterrey were also using an armored SUV. If not for armored vehicles, not Cadillacs, mind you --- there would be many, many more names up on that memorial plaque on the wall."
I wonder sometimes if people mistakenly think that the cars being driven around D.C. and New York City with diplomatic plates issued by the State Department belong to U.S. diplomats.
Sorry to disappoint, but those are foreign diplomats assigned by their own foreign countries to foreign embassies, foreign missions, and foreign consulates located in the U.S.
So, if you got cut off in traffic by one, or saw one parked illegally, or were otherwise annoyed by one, be untroubled by the notion that it was a U.S. foreign service officer at the wheel.
"We have unarmed diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also in Pakistan where they hate/hate the USA terribly and now think all diplomats are spies. And you don't ever get a tax break for service in those posts."
Military members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan (i.e., combat zones) get a federal tax vacation for the time they are in theatre. U.S. foreign service officers, even those "embedded" with military units in those countries, do not.
This is not a complaint; it's simply an observation as I note the contrast in benefits with regards to different career fields. It simply is. Comparing the military and diplomatic careers, and their respective benefits packages, is like unto the proverbial apples and oranges. They're all fruit, of course, but there are many differences.
Also, as someone who deployed to Iraq as an Army NCO, I "enjoyed" my 12-month federal tax holiday and don't begrudge that the benefit continues to date. The pay systems are quite different, which is why the more useful comparison is with other federal employees, such as the civil service.
"(I)t's not a complete line up of this United States of America unless you have some really wacky ideas thrown in like this one:
"Close the State Department. Hire mercenaries."
Oh! What a gem, dat! I bet the writer would not suggest that if he/she were ever evacuated out of Abidjan, Tunis, Cairo, Tripoli, etc. etc. But just in case Congress takes in that suggestion (because, hey, why not, huh?) -- close the State Department and Uncle Sam somehow hires 'em mercenaries -- here is my simple advice if you're an American in search of an adventure: Do not/do not go to Yemen. What's neat on paper is not always neat in real life. Mercenaries will not arrange an evacuation to bring you back home, they will not notify your next of kin of your welfare or whereabouts, they will not have spouses to cook meals and help check on you in jails or hospitals. And this one is really important -- they will not search morgues to ID your body and ship it home."
The really awful part of consular work are what are non-euphemistically known as "death cases." They are, as anyone with a shred of an imagination might suspect, a bit wearing on those who perform them.
They're also something that good consular officers recognize as being a privilege. It is our honor to be the person who helps take care of those unpleasant chores that an American citizen is simply, to be blunt, too dead to take care of for him- or herself.
Recently, I noted that it was exactly one year since a certain fatal plane crash that involved Americans in my consular district. Out of respect for the families of the deceased I'll omit any unpleasant details, but I will note that was a week when my spouse really helped me deal with the emotional aftermath.
But I wouldn't have ducked the duty, not for anything, because it was my job to be there for my deceased fellow citizens, when no one else could be.
An honor and a privilege and if you ever have a frank exchange of views with my more experienced consular colleagues, you'll quickly notice something: they'll fight for the opportunity to take on a tough job like an evacuation or a disaster. Because they know they've trained for it and they've got the bug that makes them want to help, that makes them run towards events others are running from, like firemen do at fires and like soldiers do when duty calls.
(So, getting back to the original topic, it absolutely dumbfounds me whenever I consider the bass-ackwards business model that financially disincentivizes FSOs from taking overseas assignments. Does. Not. Compute.)
Please go over to Four Globetrotters and tell her "Thank you."
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Hat tip to Domani Spero at Diplopundit ("Just one obsessive observer, diplomatic watcher, opinionator and noodle newsmaker monitoring the goings on at Foggy Bottom and the worldwide available universe").
