§4135 Foreign Service Grievance Board

Summary

Creates the Foreign Service Grievance Board with at least 5 members. Members must be independent U.S. citizens with good reputation and must not be Department employees or members of the Foreign Service. The Secretary of State appoints the chair and members from nominees that the covered agencies and any exclusive representative approve in writing. Each member serves a 2-year term that can be renewed with the same approvals. If a seat becomes vacant, the Secretary fills the rest of the term the same way. If the agencies cannot agree on a nominee, each side names two people and they take turns removing names until one person remains; that person is treated as approved. Non-government members are paid per day at the daily equivalent of the top GS–18 rate under 5 U.S.C. 5332. The Secretary may remove a member for corruption, neglect, malfeasance, or proven incapacity, after a hearing unless the member waives the hearing. The Board can use Department of State facilities and services and must pay its expenses from Department funds. The Board can have Department employees or other staff assigned or hired, who answer only to the Board and whose performance the Board evaluates. The Board keeps its records separate and confidential. By March 1 each year the Board chair must send a report about the previous year’s work to the Director General of the Foreign Service and to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the House Committee on International Relations. The report must include counts and types of cases, case outcomes (affirmed, reversed, settled, withdrawn, or dismissed), number and length of oral hearings, instances of interim relief, and average time from filing to decision.