Condi's appropriations statement

An excerpt:

"We must strengthen the recruitment of new personnel. We are seeking $57 million for 221 new positions to meet core staffing and training requirements. And as we seek out new talent, we also seek to further diversify our workforce in the process. We send an important signal to the rest of the world about our values and what they mean in practice when we are represented abroad by people of all cultures, races, and religions. Of course, we also must cultivate the people we already have in place – by rewarding achievement, encouraging initiative, and offering a full range of training opportunities. That includes the training and support needed to make full use of new technologies and tools, and we are asking for $249 million for investment in information technology."

My comments,
1) Its not clear to me if the 221 number is for additional personel above normal attrition, or a total planned hiring. I suspect its the latter though of course I would be happy to be wrong about that since I dearly wish to be one of those hires.

2) I hope that doesnt mean racial or religious quotas. It seems like an unlikely thing from a republican administration, but who knows. I am against quotas as I think they make for lots of bad feelings among staff and unfairly stigmatize those they are menat to help, but thats just my opinion.

3) I am encoursaged by the apparent continuation of Sec. Powel's drive to update the information technology of the State Department. My understanding is that the state of IT at DoS was absolutely shameful. Ridiculous that that should be so.

Anyway, just my random thoughts on exciting congressional testimony... I think I need to get out more...

MSD