Overseas Jobs to Be Reexamined

The Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the number of federal employees assigned overseas with an eye to “rightsizing” – a term often synonymous with downsizing — the government’s overseas presence. An OMB official recently told Congress that the average cost of having one full-time direct-hire American family overseas in a U.S. embassy or mission is some $340,000 and that 35 agencies have some 18,000 employees assigned to about 260 posts overseas. She added that as the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa proved, such assignments also can be dangerous. OMB is gathering statistics on the size and cost of the overseas presence and is looking at some agency policies as models, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which makes all overseas assignments only on limited term appointments, requiring management to regularly review whether each assignment is needed and effective.