State Department Makes Major Policy Shift on Assignment Restrictions
The State Department is ending so-called assignment restrictions, which some lawmakers have called discriminatory, particularly against Asian-Americans.
For years, the State Department has linked security clearances with restrictions on where employees can serve overseas.
The Department would often deny employees the chance to work in a country where they had relatives, immigrated from, or had financial ties.
The restrictions were designed to prevent foreign countries from targeting diplomats to test their loyalty, but congressional Democrats say they’ve had the opposite effect, preventing the U.S. from learning key information about key countries like China, Taiwan, Israel, and Russia.
In an email to State Department employees, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced that, after a rigorous review, the Department has decided to change the policy.
That review included assessments from the Assignment Restrictions Task Force (ARTF) and discussions with State Department subject matter experts.
Secretary Blinken writes that the review led him to “conclude that we should end the practice of issuing new assignment restrictions in a way that allows us to unlock the full potential of our workforce while upholding the highest standards of security.”
Currently, there are about 660 employees working under assignment restrictions. They will now have access to a review and an appeals process that is consistent with other reviews and appeals involving security clearances.
Still, Secretary Blinken warned that not all restrictions will be lifted.
“Our careful review has found national security interests in other assignment-related processes – such as assignment preclusions, which relate to situations in which a foreign country may consider an employee to be one of their own nationals, and assignment reviews, or pass-throughs, which concern assignments to posts rated critical for human intelligence threats – which will be maintained,” Secretary Blinken wrote in the email.
A senior State Department official tells the Washington Post the changed was aimed at recruiting and retaining a “diverse, dynamic, and entrepreneurial workforce.”
The State Department had been gradually loosening some of the assignment restrictions over the past few years.
American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) President Eric Rubin tells the Washington Post the rules dented careers and denied the State Department key workers.
However, he says he has questions about the new policy such as whether the Department will introduce other ways to restrict assignments and whether it will become harder to obtain security clearances.
“Our hope is that going forward they will make sure this is a very rare thing, make sure it’s not discriminatory, and make sure it’s based on hard reasons that are explained to people,” said Rubin.
In 2021, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to reform the restrictions. That legislation said the restrictions were most often used to block assignments in China (196 at that time), Russia (184), Taiwan (84), and Israel (70).
The legislation said the practice, “disproportionately impacts federal employees who can’t trace their heritage to the Mayflower and directly undermines the department’s goal of promoting diversity and inclusion.”
The bill was not taken up by the House.