Staffing and foreign language shortfalls remain despite initiatives to address gaps and limited progress made in the past few years, GAO recently told the Senate federal workforce committee.
State has made progress addressing staffing shortages since implementing its "diplomatic readiness initiative" in 2002, but the initiative did not fully meet its goals, and staffing shortfalls remain a problem, according to GAO-07-1154T.
It said that from 2002 to 2004, the DRI enabled State to hire over 1,000 additional employees but most have been committed to duties for Iraq and Afghanistan and the desired crises and training reserve has not been achieved.
State now needs over 1,000 new positions to support foreign language training and to respond to crises and emerging priorities, the report said.
