Title II — Enhanced Training, Professional Development, and Professional Education Opportunities for Career Department of State Employees

S. 1113 · 116th Congress · Apr 10, 2019 · Lineage

II Enhanced Training, Professional Development, and Professional Education Opportunities for Career Department of State Employees

201. Report on expanded training opportunities

(a)

In general— Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report on measures to provide enhanced training, professional development, and professional education opportunities to career Foreign Service and civil service employees to enhance core diplomatic capabilities.

(b)

Elements— The report required under subsection (a) shall include the following elements:

(1)

An assessment of current and planned training, professional development, and professional education opportunities, including topics such as leadership, management, resource allocation, whole-of-government team leadership and management, and trade craft pertaining to core diplomatic capabilities.

(2)

An assessment of the processes and resources required to make the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center an accredited academic institution, on a level equivalent to the United States military’s war colleges, capable of granting a master of arts degree in diplomatic studies, to enhance its capabilities to educate Foreign Service, civil service, and other civilian and military interagency professionals in the practice of diplomacy and international development.

202. Reestablishment of the Senior Seminar

The Secretary of State shall, not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, reestablish the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center’s full-time Senior Seminar in Foreign Policy for highly qualified Foreign Service, civil service, and military personnel from the Department of State, other agencies and the Armed Forces. The seminar’s duration shall be a minimum of nine months. Participants in the seminar shall be competitively selected based upon past performance and future potential.

203. Suspension of time in class requirement for members of the Foreign Service engaged in long-term training

Section 607(d) of the Foreign Service Act of 1980 (22 U.S.C. 4007(d)) is amended—

(1)

in paragraph (1), by striking “; and” and inserting a semicolon;

(2)

by redesignating paragraph (2) as paragraph (3); and

(3)

by inserting after paragraph (1) the following new paragraph:

“(2) the Secretary may, for purposes of this section, increase the maximum time spent in class for a member of the Service by the amount of time spent by such member in long-term training while in such class to encourage participation in such training; and”

204. Foreign language maintenance incentive program

The Secretary of State is authorized to establish and implement an incentive program to encourage members of the Foreign Service who possess language proficiency in a qualifying list of languages, as determined by the Secretary, to maintain critical foreign language skills. Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate committees a report detailing a plan to implement the program, including resource requirements.