GRADING AND CLASSIFICATION OF CLERKS IN THE FOREIGN SERVICE

FEBRUARY 17, 1931.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. TEMPLE, from the committee of conference, submitted the following

CONFERENCE REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9110]

The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the Senate to the bill (H. R. 9110) for the grading and classification of clerks in the Foreign Service of the United States of America, and providing compensation therefor, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follows:

That the House recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the Senate and agree to the same with an amendment as follows: In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the Senate amendment insert the following:

SEC. 7. That the act (Public Numbered 135, Sixty-eighth Congress) approved May 24, 1924, entitled "An act for the reorganization and improvement of the Foreign Service of the United States, and for other purposes," be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 8. That hereafter the Diplomatic and Consular Service of the United States shall be known as the Foreign Service of the United

States.

"SEC. 9. That the official designation Foreign Service officers,' as employed throughout this act, shall be deemed to denote permanent officers in the Foreign Service below the grade of minister, all of whom are subject to promotion on merit and who may be appointed to either diplomatic or consular positions or assigned to serve in the Department of State subject to section 21 of this act, at the discretion of the President. "SEC. 10. That the officers in the Foreign Service shall hereafter be graded and classified as follows with the salaries of each class herein affixed thereto, except as increases in salaries are authorized in section 33 of this act, but not exceeding in number for each class a proportion of

the total number of officers in the service represented in the following percentage limitations:

"Ambassadors and ministers as now or hereafter provided: Foreign Service officers as follows: Class 1, 6 per centum, $9,000 to $10,000; class 2, 7 per centum, $8,000 to $8,900; class 3, 8 per centum, $7,000 to $7,900; class 4, 9 per centum, $6,000 to $6,900; class 5, 10 per centum, $5,000 to $5,900; class 6, 14 per centum, $4,500 to $4,900; class 7, $4,000 to $4,400; class 8, $3,500 to $3,900; unclassified, $2,500 to $3,400; Provided, That as many Foreign Service officers above class_6 as may be required for the purpose of inspection may be detailed by the Secretary of State for that purpose.

"SEC. 11. That Foreign Service officers may be commissioned as diplomatic or consular officers or both: Provided, That all such appointments shall be made by and with the advice and consent of the Senate: And provided further, That all official acts of such officers while serving under diplomatic or consular commissions in the Foreign Service shall be performed under their respective commissions as secretaries or as consular officers.

"SEC. 12. That hereafter appointments to the position of Foreign Service officer shall be made after examination and officers so appointed shall serve a suitable period of probation in an unclassified grade or, under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe, after five years of continuous service in an executive or quasiexecutive position in the Department of State, by transfer therefrom: Provided, That no candidate shall be eligible for examination for Foreign Service officer who is not an American citizen and who shall not have been such at least fifteen years: Provided further, That reinstatement of Foreign Service officers separated from the classified service by reason of appointment to some other position in the Government service may be made by Executive order of the President under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. Excep' that the number of such officers reinstated shall not affect the number of the percentage of the class provided in section 10. "All appointments of Foreign Service officers shall be by commission to a class and not by commission to a particular post, and such officers shall be assigned to posts and may be transferred from one post to another by order of the President as the interests of the service may require: Provided, That the classification of secretaries in the Diplomatic Service and of consular officers is hereby abolished without, however, in any wise impairing the validity of the present commissions of secretaries and consular officers.

"SEC. 13. That section 5 of the act of February 5, 1915 (Public, Numbered 242), is hereby repealed.

"SEC. 14. That the Secretary of State is directed to report from time to time to the President, along with his recommendations, the names of those Foreign Service officers who by reason of efficient service have demonstrated special capacity for promotion to the grade of minister and the names of those Foreign Service officers and clerks and officers and employees in the Department of State who by reason of efficient service, an accurate record of which shall be kept in the Department of State, have demonstrated special efficiency, and also the names of persons found upon taking the prescribed examination to have fitness for appointment to the service, and any Foreign Service officer who may hereafter be promoted to a higher class within the classification prescribed in section 10 of this act shall have the status and receive the compensation attaching

to such higher class from the date stated in his commission as the effective date of his promotion to such higher class.

"That the grade of consular assistant is hereby abolished.

"SEC. 15. That sections 1697 and 1698 of the Revised Statutes are hereby repealed.

"SEC. 16. Every secretary, consul general, consul, vice consul of career, or Foreign Service officer, before he receives his commission or enters upon the duties of his office, shall give to the United States a bond, in such form as the President shall prescribe, with such sureties, who shall be permanent residents of the United States, as the Secretary of State shall approve, in a penal sum not less than the annual compensation allowed to such officer, conditioned for the true and faithful accounting for, paying over, and delivering up of all fees, moneys, goods, effects, books, records, papers, and other property which shall come to his hands or to the hands of any other person to his use as such officer under any law now or hereafter enacted, and for the true and faithful performance of all other duties now or hereafter lawfully imposed upon him as such officer: Provided, That the operation of no existing bond shall in any wise be impaired by the provisions of this act: Provided further, That such bond shall cover by its stipulations all official acts of such officer, whether commissioned as diplomatic or consular officer or Foreign Service officer. The bonds herein mentioned shall be deposited with the Secretary of the Treasury.

"SEC. 17. That the provisions of section 4 of the act of April 5, 1906, relative to the powers, duties, and prerogatives of consuls general at large are hereby made applicable to the Foreign Service officers detailed for the purpose of inspection, who shall, under the direction of the Secretary of State, inspect in a substantially uniform manner the work of diplomatic and consular offices.

"SEC. 18. That the provisions of sections 8 and 10 of the act of April 5, 1906, relative to official fees and the method of accounting therefor shall apply to diplomatic officers below the grade of minister and to consular officers.

"SEC. 19. That under such regulations as the President may prescribe, and within the limitations of such appropriations as may be made therefor, which appropriations are hereby authorized, ambassadors, ministers, diplomatic, consular, and Foreign Service officers may be granted allowances for representation; and also post allowances wherever the cost of living may be proportionately so high that in the opinion of the Secretary of State such allowances are necessary to enable such diplomatic, consular, and Foreign Service officers to carry on their work efficiently: Provided, That all such allowances shall be accounted for to the Secretary of State in such manner and under such rules and regulations as the President may prescribe and the authorization and approval of such expenditures by the Secretary of State, as complying with such rules and regulations, shall be binding upon all officers of the Government: Provided further, That the Secretary of State shall report all such expenditures annually to the Congress with the Budget estimates of the Department of State.

"SEC. 20. Appropriations are authorized for the salary of a private secretary to each amabassador to be appointed by the ambassador and hold office at his pleasure.

"SEC. 21. That any Foreign Service officer may be assigned for duty in the Department of State without loss of class or salary, such assign

ment to be for a period of not more than three years, unless the public interests demand further service, when such assignment may be extended for a period not to exceed one year. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 1742 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, any ambassador or minister or any Foreign Service officer of whatever class detailed for duty in connection with trade conferences or international gatherings, congresses, or conferences, or for other special duty not at his post or in the Department of State, except temporarily for purposes of consultation, shall be paid his salary and expenses for travel and subsistence at the rates prescribed by law.

"SCE. 22. That the Secretary of State is authorized, whenever he deems it to be in the public interest, to order to the United States on his statutory leave of absence any Foreign Service officer or vice consul of career who has performed three years or more of continuous service abroad: Provided, That the expenses of transportation and subsistence of such officers and their immediate families, in traveling from their posts to their homes in the United States and return, shall be paid under the same rules and regulations applicable in the case of officers going to and returning from their posts under orders of the Secretary of State when not on leave: And provided further, That while in the United States the services of such officers shall be available for trade conference work or for such duties in the Department of State as the Secretary of State may prescribe, but the time of such work or duties shall not be

counted as leave.

"The Secretary of State is authorized, in his discretion and subject to such regulations as may be issued by the President, to grant to any officer or employee of the Foreign Service not to exceed sixty days annual leave of absence with pay. If such officer or employee returns to the United States, the leave of absence granted under the provisions of this section shall be exclusive of the time actually and necessarily occupied in going to and from the United States, and such time as may be necessarily occupied in awaiting sailing. Any portion of sixty days annual leave not granted or availed of in any one year may be cumulative, not to exceed exclusive of time in transit and awaiting sailing, one hundred and twenty days in three years or one hundred and eighty days in four years: Provided further, That employees, not American citizens, may be granted not to exceed thirty days leave of absence with pay in any one year.

"The Secretary of State is also authorized to grant to any officer or employee of the Foreign Service on account of personal illness or on account of exposure to a contagious disease which would render presence at a post of duty hazardous to the health of fellow employees, sick leave of absence with pay at the rate of 15 days a year, the unused portion of such sick leave to be cumulative not to exceed 120 days: Provided, That during the first year of operation of this act not to exceed 30 days of additional sick leave of absence with pay may be granted.

"No Foreign Service officer shall be absent from his post with pay for more than forty-eight hours without permission, except as provided herein.

"Section 1742 of the Revised Statutes is hereby repealed.

"SEC. 23. That the part of the act of July 1, 1916 (Public, Numbered 131), which authorizes the President to designate and assign any secretary of class 1 as counselor of embassy or legation, is hereby amended to read as follows:

'Provided, That the President may, whenever he considers it advisable so to do, designate and assign any Foreign Service officer as counselor of embassy or legation.'.

"SEC. 24. That within the discretion of the President, any Foreign Service officer may be assigned to act as commissioner, chargé d'affaires, minister resident, or diplomatic agent for such period as the public interests may require without loss of grade, class, or salary: Provided, however, That no such officer shall receive more than one salary.

"SEC. 25. That for such times as any Foreign Service officer shall be lawfully authorized to act as chargé d'affaires ad interim or to assume charge of a consulate general or consulate during the absence of the principal officer at the post to which he shall have been assigned, he shall, if his salary is less than one-half that of such principal officer, receive in addition to his salary as Foreign Service officer, compensation equal to the difference between such salary and one-half of the salary provided by law for the ambassador, minister, or principal consular officer, as the case may be.

SEC. 26. The President is authorized to prescribe rules and regulations for the establishment of a Foreign Service retirement and disability system to be administered under the direction of the Secretary of State and in accordance with the following principles, to wit:

"(a) The Secretary of State shall submit annually a comparative report showing all receipts and disbursements on account of refunds, allowances, and annuities, together with the total number of persons receiving annuities and the amounts paid them, and shall submit annually estimates of appropriations necessary to continue this section in full force and such appropriations are hereby authorized: Provided, That in no event shall the aggregate total appropriations exceed the aggregate total of the contributions of the Foreign Service officers theretofore made, and accumulated interest thereon.

"(b) There is hereby created a special fund to be known as the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund.

"(c) Five per centum of the basic salary of all Foreign Service officers eligible to retirement shall be contributed to the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund, and the Secretary of the Treasury is directed on the date on which this act takes effect to cause such deductions to be made and the sums transferred on the books of the Treasury Department to the credit of the Foreign Service retirement and disability fund for the payment of annuities, refunds, and allowances: Provided, That all basic salaries in excess of $10,000 per annum shall be treated as $10,000.

"(d) When any Foreign Service officer has reached the age of sixtyfive years and rendered at least fifteen years of service he shall be retired: Provided, That if any such officer shall have served thirty years he may be retired at his own request before reaching the age of sixty-five years: Provided further, That the President may in his discretion retain any such officer on active duty for such period prior to his reaching seventy years of age, as he may deem for the interests of the United States.

"(e) Annuities shall be paid to retired Foreign Service officers under the following classification, based upon length of service and at the following percentages of the average annual basic salary for the ten years next preceding the date of retirement: Class A, thirty years or more, 60 per centum; Class B, from twenty-seven to thirty years, 54 per centum; Class C, from twenty-four to twenty-seven years, 48 per centum; Class D, from twenty-one to twenty-four years, 42 per centum; Class E,