22 U.S.C. § 2719a — Foreign affairs training

(a) Sense of Congress. Congress recognizes that the Department is a crucial national-security agency. Its Foreign Service and Civil Service employees need the best possible training and professional development throughout their careers to promote and defend United States interests and the health and safety of United States citizens abroad. Congress also recognizes that changing 21st-century security challenges require more standardized training and professional development tied to equal, accountable, and transparent promotion and leadership practices for Department and other national-security personnel.

(b) Defined term. "Appropriate committees of Congress" means the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations and the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations.

(c) Omitted. This subsection is omitted in the supplied text.

(d) Fellowships. The Director General of the Foreign Service must expand and create fellowship programs for Foreign Service and Civil Service officers. The programs must include short- and long-term opportunities at think tanks and nongovernmental organizations; the Department of Defense and other relevant federal agencies; industry, especially technology, global operations, finance, and other fields directly relevant to international affairs; and schools of international relations and other relevant university programs throughout the United States. Within 180 days after December 23, 2022, the Director General must report to Congress on how the Department could expand the Pearson Fellows Program for Foreign Service Officers and the Brookings Fellow Program for Civil Servants. The expanded programs would give fellows a later Department assignment in an office where they gain practical knowledge of Congress's people and processes, including offices outside the Legislative Affairs Bureau. The report must assess the current demand for congressional fellowships, support for applicants, the value to officers and the Department, and options for making Foreign Service and Civil Service fellowships more helpful to careers.

(e) Board of Visitors of the Foreign Service Institute. (1) The Secretary may establish a 12-member Board of Visitors. Congress says it should be established within 1 year after December 23, 2022. (2) The Secretary appoints the members. They give independent advice and recommendations about organizational management, strategic planning, resources, curriculum, and other matters involving the Foreign Service Institute, including regular observations about how well the Department includes training and development in the work of the Bureau for Global Talent Management. (3)(A) Members may not be federal officers or employees and must be eminent authorities in diplomacy, national security, management, leadership, economics, trade, technology, or advanced international-relations education. (B)(i) At least 6 must have at least 10 years of relevant expertise outside diplomacy. (ii) No more than 6 may previously have served in the Department's Senior Foreign Service or Senior Executive Service. (4) Members serve 3-year terms, except that the first appointments consist of four 3-year terms, four 2-year terms, and four 1-year terms. (5) The Secretary approves the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson based on a Board recommendation. They serve at the Secretary's discretion. (6) The Board meets when called by the Institute Director and Chairperson and at least twice each year. (7) Members receive no compensation, but may receive authorized travel expenses, including per diem, while serving away from home or their regular business locations. Despite section 1342 of title 31, the Secretary may accept their voluntary unpaid service. (8) The Federal Advisory Committee Act applies to the Board.

(f) Establishment of Provost. (1) The Foreign Service Institute has a Provost position. (2) The Secretary appoints the Provost, who reports to the Institute Director. (3) The Provost should be in the Senior Executive Service and have experience in diplomacy, national security, education, management, leadership, economics, history, trade, adult education, or technology. The Provost must also have significant experience outside the Department, in another national-security agency or the private sector, preferably in authority positions at educational institutions or in professional development and mid-career training with responsibility for evaluating academic programs. (4) The Provost oversees, reviews, evaluates, and coordinates the academic curriculum for all Institute courses. The Provost also coordinates an evaluation system measuring the usefulness of each course's information and skills so that, when practicable, performance assessments can be placed in personnel records maintained by the Bureau for Global Talent Management and used by Foreign Service Selection Boards. (5) The Secretary sets the Provost's salary to match the rank and experience of a Senior Executive Service member.

(g) Other agency responsibilities and opportunities for congressional staff. (1) Other national-security agencies should be allowed to increase their personnel's enrollment in Institute and other Department training facilities, to promote a whole-of-government approach to national-security challenges. (2) Within 180 days after December 23, 2022, the Secretary must report to the appropriate committees of Congress on training and development opportunities at the Institute and other Department facilities for congressional staff, the budget effects of offering them, and possible courses.

(h) Strategy for adapting training requirements. (1) Within 1 year after December 23, 2022, the Secretary must develop and submit to the appropriate committees a strategy for adapting training requirements to meet current and future needs for 21st-century diplomacy. (2) The strategy must: (A) integrate training into promotion policies, including educational and professional-development standards used in tenure and promotion guidelines; (B) address democratic backsliding and authoritarianism; state-sponsored disinformation and help for allies to address it, including through the Global Engagement Center; cyber threats; Russia's, Cuba's, Iran's, North Korea's, and the Maduro Regime's aggression and malign influence; the Chinese Communist Party's multifaceted challenge to the rules-based order; climate-change effects on United States diplomacy; and nuclear threats; (C) examine advantages and disadvantages of residential A-100 orientation training and the feasibility of residential training for other long-term programs; (D) examine a press-freedom curriculum for the National Foreign Affairs Training Center, including the history and current problems of press freedom and countries of specific concern; the Department's role in press freedom as an American value, human-rights issue, and national-security need; ways to include press-freedom promotion in diplomacy; and tools for helping journalists in danger and engaging foreign governments and institutions for at-risk journalists; and (E) expand external Institute courses at academic institutions or professional associations, including in-person and online courses on monitoring and evaluation, audience analysis, and emerging technologies in diplomacy. (3) When examining residential training, the Secretary must work with national-security departments and agencies that use residential orientation training and consider using the Department's Foreign Affairs Security Training Center in Blackstone, Virginia.

(i) Reports and briefings. (1) Within 1 year after December 23, 2022, the Secretary must report to the appropriate committees on a strategy for broadening and deepening Department training and professional development, including current and future needs for 21st-century diplomacy; the process and resources needed to carry it out throughout the Department; and its workforce results and effects, especially the relationship between training, development, and promotions and the methods used to measure and evaluate those results. (2) Within 1 year after submitting that report, and annually for 2 more years, the Secretary must brief the committees on the report information.

(j) Foreign-language maintenance incentive program. (1) The Secretary may create and run an incentive program with a structure similar to the Department of Defense Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus. It would encourage Foreign Service members who have proficiency in languages the Secretary identifies as qualifying for extra incentive pay to maintain critical language skills. (2) Within 90 days after December 23, 2022, the Secretary must report to the appropriate committees with a detailed implementation plan and expected resources.