Van Hollen, Sullivan – Co-Chairs of the Foreign Service Caucus – Make Bipartisan Push for Critical Fix to Foreign Service Pay

This week, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), co-Chairs of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus, sent a letter to Senate Leadership urging the inclusion of provisions reauthorizing Overseas Comparability Pay – a critical measure for Foreign Service members and other overseas federal employees – prior to the end of this Fiscal Year.

The Senators begin, “As co-Chairs of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus, we write to urge the inclusion of reauthorization of Overseas Comparability Pay (OCP) in any funding agreement that the Senate considers before the end of Fiscal Year 2024. As you know, OCP provides Foreign Service Officers and certain other federal employees who work overseas with compensation comparable to their domestic counterparts.  As OCP sunsets on September 30^th, the failure to ensure its reauthorization would cut the pay of Foreign Service employees serving abroad by an average of 22 percent.”

They underscore the urgency of this issue, noting, “Specifically, a lapse in OCP would result in an immediate pay cut for Foreign Service Officers serving overseas with the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and the Peace Corps. OCP has been routinely approved by Congress since 2009, and a sudden lapse in authorization would be an abrupt blow to the livelihoods of these overseas public servants.”

“The reauthorization of OCP enjoys broad bipartisan support from the Biden Administration, Members of Congress in both chambers and both parties, and the American Foreign Service Association. That’s because the reauthorization of OCP will ensure that Foreign Service Officers can continue to effectively promote American security, economic, and political interests abroad in an era of growing risks and heightened geopolitical competition,” the Senators write in closing.

The full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell:

As co-Chairs of the Senate Foreign Service Caucus, we write to urge the inclusion of reauthorization of Overseas Comparability Pay (OCP) in any funding agreement that the Senate considers before the end of Fiscal Year 2024. As you know, OCP provides Foreign Service Officers and certain other federal employees who work overseas with compensation comparable to their domestic counterparts.  As OCP sunsets on September 30^th, the failure to ensure its reauthorization would cut the pay of Foreign Service employees serving abroad by an average of 22 percent.

Specifically, a lapse in OCP would result in an immediate pay cut for Foreign Service Officers serving overseas with the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Commerce’s Foreign Commercial Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, and the Peace Corps. OCP has been routinely approved by Congress since 2009, and a sudden lapse in authorization would be an abrupt blow to the livelihoods of these overseas public servants.

Foreign Service Officers serve our country in some of the most dangerous and difficult places in the world. A potential lapse of OCP would compound the challenges they face, imperiling the long-term effectiveness of the Foreign Service, and its ability to recruit and retain the most talented officers.

The reauthorization of OCP enjoys broad bipartisan support from the Biden Administration, Members of Congress in both chambers and both parties, and the American Foreign Service Association. That’s because the reauthorization of OCP will ensure that Foreign Service Officers can continue to effectively promote American security, economic, and political interests abroad in an era of growing risks and heightened geopolitical competition.