The State Department is retroactively promoting hundreds of additional Foreign Service employees, after unilaterally changing the criteria and the panels of individuals who oversee this process.

The American Foreign Service Association said the department recently carried out these retroactive promotions, as part of “targeted administrative actions.”

Earlier this year, the State Department eliminated an employee’s contributions to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) goals from the criteria for promotion within the Foreign Service. Instead, the department said it would vet Foreign Service employees on their “fidelity” to the Trump administration’s policies.

AFSA President John Dinkelman said the State Department retroactively promoted 200 Foreign Service employees, based on these new criteria.

In a departure from past practice, Dinkelman said the State Department isn’t sharing the names of employees receiving these promotions, or the names of those who served on Foreign Service promotion boards.

“We have no idea who made these decisions,” Dinkelman said, adding that the State Department made these “unprecedented changes to the process” without consulting AFSA.

Dinkelman said that the level of transparency is important to ensure the promotion recommendations are unbiased.

The State Department’s inspector general’s office reported in May 2022 that human resources employees frequently gave spots on Foreign Service promotion boards to family members and friends. According to the report, several employees raised concerns that certain board selections amounted to “nepotism and favoritism.”

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement that the Biden administration “imposed ideological litmus tests on civil servants, penalizing competent and deserving government employees in the process.”

“Under President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department rewards excellence, which is the right thing to do for our workforce, for our country, and for the American people,” Pigott said.

In July, the State Department unveiled new criteria for promotions and career advancement in the Foreign Service. Among the changes, the department will assess employees on their “fidelity” to the Trump administration’s policy goals.

The department’s newly released “core precepts” for tenure and promotion will grade Foreign Service on five criteria — fidelity, communication, leadership, management and knowledge.

Previous versions of this scorecard placed greater emphasis on subject matter expertise and assessing an employee’s contributions to DEIA goals.

“The derivative effects of this mean that some poor individual, who actually played by the rules and who fairly demonstrated their adherence to principles that are now distanced by the government, was not promoted, and somebody else has been now placed in front of them in the line,” Dinkelman said.

The department no longer recognizes AFSA as a union, following executive orders that scaled back collective bargaining rights for a majority of the federal workforce.

The State Department’s human resources bureau releases new precepts every three years, outlining the most important qualities Foreign Service officers must demonstrate to advance to higher ranks.

As part of a newly added “fidelity” standard, Foreign Service employees across all ranks will be evaluated on their contributions to “protecting and promoting executive power.”

The fidelity portion of the scorecard links to a White House webpage listing President Donald Trump’s executive orders and presidential actions.

The Bureau of Global Talent Management says that mid-level Foreign Service officers should be able to demonstrate how they are “zealously executing” U.S. government policy.

AFSA also raised concerns in August, when the State Department promoted several Foreign Service officers who received reduction-in-force notices earlier that summer.

The union said the promotion of laid-off diplomats suggested the department may have dismissed some of its top performers.

The State Department sent RIF notices to nearly 1,350 employees in July.

Of those, nearly 250 were Foreign Service officers currently stationed in the U.S. A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily blocked the State Department from officially separating these employees.

Shortly after sending those layoff notices, the Foreign Service resumed hiring. By the end of January, the Foreign Service will have made enough hires to replace those who received RIF notices.

In September, it brought on a class of more than 100 new Foreign Service officers. This month, another 70 new hires were brought on to serve a five-year appointment as non-career consular fellows.

In January, the Foreign Service is scheduled to hire another class of 160 new Foreign Service officers.

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