The State Department has not targeted any employees for downsizing under its plan to swallow the U.S. Information Agency and the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, according to a new Clinton administration report.
The administration submitted its plan for the foreign affairs reorganization to Congress last week. Congress ordered the reorganization in the omnibus spending bill passed last October.
"All personnel and positions shall be transferred to State at the same grade or class, with the same rate of basic pay or basic salary, and with the same tenure held immediately preceding transfer," said the report, which was prepared by the State Department.
The Arms Control and Disarmament Agency will be folded into the State Department on March 28. Five divisions of ACDA and State will be reduced to three bureaus: Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Political-Military Affairs.
The U.S. Information Agency will merge with State on Oct. 1. A new undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs will be responsible for USIA and State's public communications roles. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, now a part of USIA, will become a separate federal entity, with responsibility for U.S. international broadcasting, including the Voice of America. The Secretary of State will have a seat on the board, replacing the USIA director.
The Agency for International Development will remain separate from the State Department, but the AID administrator will be under the direct authority of the Secretary of State beginning April 1. The Secretary of State will review AID's strategic and performance plans and budget requests. AID's press office and some administrative functions will move over to the State Department.
About 4,000 USIA employees, 250 ACDA employees and eight USAID employees will become employees of the State Department. About 3,000 USIA employees will become employees of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
"Reorganization will streamline administrative and management operations and lead to greater efficiencies while building on the diverse strengths of the merging organizations and their employees," the State Department report said. For example, State and USIA administrative systems, including payroll and accounting, will be merged. Other computer systems, including communications technology, will be consolidated in the future, the report said.
Though downsizing isn't part of the plan, the report noted that "some personnel adjustments" may be necessary following the USIA merger.
However, the purpose of the merger is not to cut costs, the report said.
"Though there will be some downstream savings from consolidated management functions, there will be no short-term ones," the report said. "In fact, costs are likely to rise over the next several fiscal years as relocation costs are borne and incompatible information technologies are conformed."
Information technology consolidation will be a major management challenge for the bulked-up State Department, the report said.
"Separate electronic mail systems and computer databases that often cannot talk to each other will be expensive to standardize," the report said.
The report said top agency managers will also struggle to achieve the proper balance between centralized control and autonomy for bureaus.