But as President Bush prepares to submit his first budget next week, it remains unclear how much more successful Powell will be than his predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright, in wresting money from a skeptical Congress as well as from a new president intent on holding down most government spending. Capitol Hill staffers said the general's can-do reputation may win over some longtime critics of the State Department, and with his influence with Bush, Powell's task looks less daunting. During most of the 1990s, staffing levels at State, including both foreign and civil service employees, fell steadily from a high of 14,300 in 1992 to 12,800 in 1998 before rebounding slightly as hiring was finally allowed to keep pace with attrition. The number is now 15,500, but the higher figure largely reflects the transfer of employees from the USIA and the ACDA to the department's rolls in 1999, officials said. The department estimates that it remains short about 700 foreign service officers, or 10 percent of the current diplomatic corps.
Many vacancies are in hardship posts overseas.
In some cases, tasks traditionally done by diplomats, such as reporting about local politics, are being performed by embassy employees from other agencies, such as Defense Department attaches. While its staff was declining during the 1990s, according to the department's own calculations, the workload of American consulates increased 30 percent. The result is that in some countries, foreigners seeking to visit the United States have to wait more than a year for a visa interview, officials said. The shortfall also means that, to keep posts from sitting empty, many foreign service officers are dispatched overseas without language or management training. State Department officials would like to hire enough employees to allow them to place as much as 15 percent of the agency's work force in training at any time.