Sep 9, 2024
AAD Staff
Washington, D.C. – The American Academy of Diplomacy urges Congress and the Administration to support the extension of the Overseas Comparability Pay (OCP) for the front-line defenders of our national security: our diplomats. We urge Congress to extend the authority for pay, which expires on September 30, 2024. It has been in place for ten years without a problem. Without this extension, approximately 11,000 employees currently serving overseas will take a pay cut of an estimated 22 percent as of October 1, 2024.
The Overseas Comparability Pay gives eligible federal employees overseas a portion of the Washington, D.C. locality-based comparability payment. It helps eliminate a basic pay disparity between employees serving in Washington, D.C. and those assigned abroad. It is, thus, key to transferring diplomatic personnel between the U.S. and overseas. It covers employees in the Department of State, the U.S. Foreign Service, the Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service and the Animal Plant Health and Inspection Service, the Department of Commerce's U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, U.S. Agency for International Development, the Peace Corps, and all other federal agencies with employees working abroad.
Our diplomats from many federal agencies spend substantial time overseas, often in very difficult posts, protecting the national security of the United States. Given the global challenges, this is no time to undermine our front lines of defense. Congress must act immediately to prevent the lapse in pay.
The American Academy of Diplomacy is dedicated to strengthening the professionalism of diplomacy and explaining its importance to the American people. This statement was issued with the approval of the Academy’s Board of Directors.
END
###