A FOREIGN SERVICE PAC

A FOREIGN SERVICE PAC
Washington Post: It might be thought of as a sad sign of the times: U.S. Foreign Service officers, frustrated by not getting their phone calls returned by members of Congress, have joined the ranks of tobacco, petroleum and gun lobbyists by forming a political action committee of their own. The purpose of AFSA-PAC, which draws on the name of the American Foreign Service Association, is to enable American diplomats to buy the attention of federal lawmakers for whom money speaks with the loudest voice.
The creation of the PAC, first reported by the weekly publication The Hill, is the latest evidence of a widening gulf between members of Congress and groups that lawmakers should be listening to without having a price tag attached. Congress, as a matter of course, ought to be concerned about fielding the best Foreign Service the country can afford. After all, the 78-year-old American Foreign Service Association does more than promote the interests of professional diplomats.
The Foreign Service is one of the means by which Congress and the public learn about the key role of diplomacy in advancing and defending the country's interests abroad. The ranks of AFSA are filled with career diplomats and political appointees, active and retired. That issues bearing on the effectiveness of men and women charged with advancing national security are off the congressional radar screen is hard to fathom. That it also now requires campaign contributions to persuade key lawmakers to attend to bread-and-butter issues affecting America's Foreign Service reveals just how far Congress has fallen.
Voluntary donations
AFSA-PAC's organizers explain that when AFSA speaks on Capitol Hill, only congressional staffers are around to get the message. "We have found it difficult to get the opportunity to make our case directly to the busy Senators and Representatives who ultimately decide legislation," AFSA-PAC explains on its Web site. AFSA-PAC, according to the Web site, can help congressional lawmakers raise the money "they need to communicate with their constituents by hosting and participating in events attended by lawmakers at which we can make our case." Getting there requires voluntary donations from AFSA members -- money that will flow "exclusively" and on an equal basis to Democratic and Republican members with key roles on committees responsible for funding or overseeing foreign affairs agencies.
And with that announcement, and the $60,000 it shelled out in the 2002 elections, the U.S. Foreign Service threw in its lot with almost 4,000 business, union and trade association PACs that have turned the buying of Congress into a low art form and a national shame.