It is the sense of Congress that recognition throughout the Department of the value and importance of training and professional development for Foreign Service and Civil Service personnel is vital to the development and maintenance by such personnel of the skills and expertise required for the Department to contribute fully and effectively to the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States.
The Secretary, in consultation with the heads of relevant Federal agencies, shall conduct a study of the feasibility and cost of establishing a diplomatic officers’ reserve corps or similar mechanism to augment the Department’s personnel needs at any level on a temporary or permanent basis.
In conducting the study required under paragraph (1), the Secretary shall consider whether the diplomatic officers’ reserve corps should be modeled on the Senior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps established under chapter 103 of title 10 to encourage the recruitment and retention of personnel who have the critical language skills necessary to meet the requirements of the Foreign Service by providing financial assistance to students studying critical languages at institutions of higher education.
The Secretary shall take appropriate action to ensure accountability and transparency in the evaluation of the precepts described in section 4003 of this title upon which the selection boards established pursuant to section 4002 of this title make recommendations for the promotion of members of the Foreign Service under section 4001 of this title by affording equal consideration to the undertaking of training, professional development, and foreign language acquisition and retention among any other objective criteria considered by selection boards in making such recommendations.
The Secretary shall take appropriate action to ensure that the performance standards for any job performance appraisal system for Civil Service personnel of the Department afford equal consideration to the undertaking of training, professional development, and foreign language acquisition and retention among any other objective criteria in the evaluation of the job performance of such personnel.
The Secretary shall take appropriate action to ensure that the evaluation of precepts for recommendations for promotion described in subsection (c)(1) for members of the Foreign Service in supervisory positions incorporates the extent to which such members appropriately address the training and professional development needs of the personnel under their supervision.
The Secretary shall take appropriate action to ensure that the performance standards described in subsection (c)(2) for Civil Service personnel of the Department in supervisory positions afford appropriate weight to addressing the training and professional development needs of the personnel under their supervision.