{"id":24836,"date":"2026-06-09T15:39:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/?p=24836"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T19:39:04","slug":"kaine-van-hollen-and-merkley-introduce-bill-to-strengthen-state-department-workforce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/kaine-van-hollen-and-merkley-introduce-bill-to-strengthen-state-department-workforce\/","title":{"rendered":"KAINE, VAN HOLLEN, AND MERKLEY INTRODUCE BILL TO STRENGTHEN STATE DEPARTMENT WORKFORCE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the <em>State Department Integrity and Transparency Act<\/em>, legislation to strengthen the State Department workforce and ensure senior State Department officials are selected based on merit. This bill would help ensure positions are staffed by nonpartisan, experienced, and thoroughly vetted foreign policy professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cFrom countering an increasingly aggressive China to addressing Russia\u2019s continued war in Ukraine, the State Department plays a critical role in ensuring America\u2019s ability to protect our interests, promote global security, and advance democratic values,\u201d <strong>dijo Kaine.<\/strong> \u201cWe must ensure that the State Department remains staffed by qualified individuals. This legislation would ensure that the senior leadership at the State Department has the necessary experience and expertise to address the many challenges we face across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cThe civil servants who power our State Department play a critical role in advancing our national security interests and stewarding American diplomacy around the globe. This bill will help ensure the integrity of the State Department as a merit-based institution and will guard our diplomatic corps against politicization,\u201d <strong>dijo Van Hollen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cA strong, experienced workforce is essential to the success of our federal agencies. In the face of Trump\u2019s never-ending attacks on dedicated public servants across the federal government, this bill ensures the State Department\u2014the face of American diplomacy\u2014will have the best possible foreign policy professionals working to protect our national security and interests overseas,\u201d <strong>dijo Merkley.<\/strong> \u201cAs the United States tackles growing global threats, we need to be able to confront these challenges wherever they appear with our best and brightest people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Espec\u00edficamente, el&nbsp;<em>State Department Integrity and Transparency Act&nbsp;<\/em>har\u00eda:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Require\u00a0that\u00a0no fewer than 75 percent of the Department\u2019s assistant secretaries come from the Department\u2019s Senior Foreign Service or Senior Executive Service. This would bring the Department closer in line with the number of\u00a0career professional\u00a0appointees in the senior ranks at the Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Extend the existing requirement that the Department submit a report to Congress on the qualifications of ambassadorial nominees to nominees for assistant secretary positions, and any relevant business interests that such nominee has before such country, region, or institution.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strengthen existing requirement that political campaigns not be a factor in the nomination of an ambassador and require a Presidential certification of compliance that\u00a0competence, rather than\u00a0contributions to political campaigns,\u00a0is the primary reason for nominating an ambassador.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure that unvetted\u00a0and non-Senate confirmed\u00a0sub-ambassadorial\u00a0political appointees do not serve\u00a0in\u00a0extended\u00a0and cushy overseas assignments\u00a0at significant taxpayer expense.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to Kaine, Van Hollen, and Merkley, the legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>El texto completo de la legislaci\u00f3n est\u00e1 disponible. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaine.senate.gov\/download\/state-department-integrity-and-transparency-act-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aqu\u00ed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>###<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the State Department Integrity and Transparency Act, legislation to strengthen the State Department workforce and ensure senior State Department officials are selected based on merit. This bill would help ensure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":18847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-24836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-foreign-policy-and-national-security"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>KAINE, VAN HOLLEN, AND MERKLEY INTRODUCE BILL TO STRENGTHEN STATE DEPARTMENT WORKFORCE - Merkley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.merkley.senate.gov\/es\/kaine-van-hollen-and-merkley-introduce-bill-to-strengthen-state-department-workforce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_MX\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"KAINE, VAN HOLLEN, AND MERKLEY INTRODUCE BILL TO STRENGTHEN STATE DEPARTMENT WORKFORCE - Merkley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced the State Department Integrity and Transparency Act, legislation to strengthen the State Department workforce and ensure senior State Department officials are selected based on merit. 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