*EPF302 02/28/01
Key Senators Back Call for State Department Reforms
(Carlucci testifies to "advanced state of disrepair" in agency) (780)
By Ralph Dannheisser
Washington File Congressional Correspondent
Washington -- Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee followed their House of Representatives counterparts in backing recommendations for major State Department reforms proposed in the recent Carlucci Report.
They outlined their views at a committee hearing February 28, at which former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, who chaired the independent task force that prepared the report, described the foreign affairs agency as being in "an advanced state of disrepair."
Problems ranging from "obsolete telecommunications facilities" to "unsafe and insecure working environments" to a "dysfunctional personnel system" to "inadequate training" reflect, in part, inadequate funding, Carlucci said. But he added there is no doubt that they also reflect a history of "long term mismanagement" of the department.
Carlucci cited another finding in the report -- that U.S. ambassadors overseas "lack the authority necessary to coordinate...personnel deployed to their missions by other agencies," and he added a new item to the list of supposed shortcomings: "poor congressional relations."
Overall, Carlucci told the senators, "It's an institution that is literally crying out for reform," and his task force's January report can provide "a roadmap for the new secretary to jumpstart the process."
When Carlucci delivered his message before the House International Relations Committee February 14, members made clear that State Department reform would be a major focus of their efforts this year, and Senate panel members have now expressed similar sentiments.
Senator George Allen (Republican, Virginia), who chaired the hearing, voiced enthusiasm for instituting a range of reforms, and declared that "performance-based measurements (to gauge their effect) are a great idea."
Allen said he would like to see particular attention paid to what he termed "a woefully antiquated and disjointed information technology architecture" at the State Department and "development of a rational and efficient technology and knowledge management program."
Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, the committee's senior Democrat, acknowledged the need for management reforms at State, but he argued that many of the department's problems "arise from the fact that it is starved for resources.
"Compared to other agencies in the national security world, the State Department is clearly the poor cousin. We can't continue that," he declared.
Biden said he concurs with many of the Carlucci Report's findings, and in particular agrees that the department "needs to recapture the lead role in the Executive Branch in making foreign policy" -- a role that Biden and Carlucci's group agree has been badly eroded.
Like other members of the committee, Biden said he is encouraged by the fact that Colin Powell heads the department, calling him "the right secretary of state at the right time" in terms of persuasiveness and the desire and ability to institute reforms.
While acknowledging Biden's point that a shortage of resources accounts for part of the State Department's problems, Carlucci responded that "what's needed is both resources and reform." And, he observed, "without the reform, we're not going to get the resources from the Congress."
Besides the specific reforms delineated in the task force report, Carlucci told the senators, "The State Department culture has to change." While past emphasis has been on government-to-government contacts, he said, in today's world "the interaction has to be with all the elements of the society."
"We have to do an awful lot better in public diplomacy," Carlucci said. And he commended Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (Republican, North Carolina) for pushing the legislation that brought the 1999 merger of the United States Information Agency into the State Department -- a move that Carlucci said "should improve" that aspect of the department's work.
Carlucci also was complimentary to Powell, declaring that "so far, he's made all the right moves" toward reshaping the department.
Emphasizing the need for sweeping changes, he told the committee, "Students aren't electing to go into the foreign service. The State Department isn't viewed as a place where you can have a rewarding career any more....We are not getting the best and the brightest as we used to."
Thomas Donilon, a former assistant secretary of state for public affairs who served on the reform task force, joined Carlucci in testifying before the committee.
Donilon stressed the need for improving communications within the department, contending that, at present, "People in the same building can't send an e-mail to the person in the office next door. No American business would operate like that," he said.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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