Foreign Service Amendments of 1984

Foreign Service Amendments of 1984 - Title I: Amendments to the Foreign Service Act - Amends the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to provide that the Inspector General of the Foreign Service, for purposes of the Hatch Act, shall not be considered an employee who determines U.S. policies in foreign relations or in the nationwide administration of Federal laws.

Directs the Secretary of State to make publicly available reports on the competence of nominees for chiefs of missions.

Limits the duration of a limited appointment to the Foreign Service to five years. Permits a limited appointment to be made only: (1) for appointment as a career candidate; (2) for appointment as a consular agent; (3) for appointment of a family member; or (4) if the Secretary makes specified certifications to the Congress. Permits renewal or extension of a limited appointment only to allow continued service: (1) as a consular agent or as a family member; or (2) as a career candidate if continued service is appropriate to remedy a grievance or in special circumstances set forth by regulation. Defines temporary limited appointment.

Requires the Secretary to give preferential consideration to employing qualified family members of members of the Foreign Service or of other Government employees when employing individuals abroad in positions to which career members of the Service are not customarily assigned.

Authorizes the Secretary to adjust, in accordance with the rankings and recommendations of selection boards, the basic salary rate of a member of the Senior Foreign Service not more than once during any year. Authorizes selection boards to make such recommendations.

Requires that performance pay shall be distributed among members of the Senior Foreign Service in accordance with the rankings of selection boards.

Provides for on-call pay for Foreign Service personnel who are officially scheduled to be on call outside regular duty hours while assigned abroad.

Requires the Secretary, except when no member of the Foreign Service is available who has the necessary qualifications to fill a position, to: (1) assign only members of the Foreign Service to positions designated as Foreign Service positions; and (2) normally assign only members of the Senior Foreign Service to Senior Foreign Service positions but may assign other members of the Foreign Service to those positions.

Makes ineligible for promotion a member of the Foreign Service whose maximum time in class expires. Requires that a member of the Foreign Service whose maximum time in class expires shall be retired. Permits limited extensions of the career appointments of members of the Foreign Service whose maximum time in class expires after they have attained a salary class from which no effective promotional opportunities exist. Directs the Secretary to extend temporarily, for not more than one year, the career appointment of a career member of the Foreign Service whose maximum time in class or limited career extension expires when the extension is necessary for the member to attain eligibility for an immediate annuity.

Provides for judicial review of separations for cause of members of the Foreign Service.

Authorizes certain participants in the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System who are credited with civilian service to make special contributions to the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability Fund. Requires such contributions to equal specified percentages of the basic salary received for such service. Requires special contributions to equal any refund which has been received but not redeposited.

Permits a participant of the Fund and the participant's former spouse to elect to waive or reduce a survivor annuity for the former spouse if the election is made before the end of the 12 month period after the divorce or annulment becomes final.

Permits retirement for disability or incapacity at age 60 (currently, 65). Adjusts the amount of the annuity based upon whether or not the participant is receiving a military pension.

Provides for computation of a survivor's annuity in the case of a participant who had less than 20 years of service at the time of death. Limits the additional service credit that may accrue to a deceased participant to the difference between the participant's age at death and age 60.

Entitles a participant to the lump-sum credit if the participant: (1) is separated from the Service or is transferred for at least 31 consecutive days; (2) applies for payment of the lump-sum credit; (3) is not reemployed in a position covered by the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System; and (4) will not become eligible to receive an annuity within 31 days after filing the application. Declares that payment of the lump-sum credit voids all annuity rights under the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System. Prohibits paying any part of a lump-sum credit to a participant's former spouse if the former spouse remarries before age 60.

Authorizes the Secretary of State to prescribe regulations authorizing a participant or former participant to elect to waive or reduce a survivor annuity or lump-sum payment to a spouse or former spouse if the participant establishes that the participant, after having taken all reasonable steps to find the spouse or former spouse, does not know the whereabouts of the spouse or former spouse. Authorizes the Secretary to provide for payment of an annuity payable to a missing spouse or former spouse to the former participant or to a surviving spouse or former spouse who is not missing.

Authorizes paying the expenses for a member of the Foreign Service of: (1) transporting and storing furniture for three months in connection with an assignment to a new post unless an extension is granted in unusual circumstances; and (2) one round-trip for each member's child below age 21 from the post of the member abroad to the residence of the child.

Requires the limitations on health care to be waived if the Secretary determines that illness of the covered individual was caused or materially aggravated by the fact that the individual is or has been located abroad.

Makes eligible for health benefits coverage any individual: (1) married to a member or former member of the Foreign Service whose marriage is dissolved by divorce or annulment; (2) who, before the divorce or annulment, is covered by the health benefits plan; and (3) who, after the divorce or annulment becomes final, qualifies for health benefits coverage. Authorizes a former spouse to enroll in a health benefit plan as a member of the family of a member of the Foreign Service if the former spouse files an application within 31 days of the day the divorce or annulment becomes final and arranges to pay the premiums. Permits an individual who becomes a former spouse before enactment of this provision if, within six months of enactment, the individual files an application and arranges to pay premiums.

Provides for identification and notification of former spouses of their right to enroll in such health benefits plan. Makes ineligible for such plan any former spouse who remarries before age 60.

Includes within the meaning of the term grievance: (1) any alleged violation of applicable laws or regulations (including collective bargaining agreements and published policies) affecting the terms and conditions of the employment or career status of the member; (2) allegedly wrongful disciplinary action (taken or proposed to be taken) against the member; and (3) reprisal or other interference in connection with any disclosure or other protected action by a member of the Foreign Service. Excludes from the definition of the term grievance the expiration of a limited appointment. (Current law also excludes from the definition of grievance the termination of a limited appointment.)

Includes within the definition of surviving spouse a former spouse who survives a member of the Foreign Service if the former spouse has not remarried before age 60.

Entitles a grievant, if a grievance is not settled within 60 days (currently 90 days), to file the grievance with the Foreign Service Grievance Board.

Prohibits members of the Foreign Service Grievance Board from being current or former members of the Foreign Service or current or former employees or consultants to the Department of State. Provides for selection of a Chairperson of the Board. Provides a method for appointing a member of the Board if the three appropriate agencies and the exclusive representative of each such agency cannot agree on nominees for the Board. Requires the Board to appoint and fix the compensation of an executive secretary. Authorizes the Board to reconsider any decision on its own motion or upon petition of a party to the proceedings filed within 30 days after notice of such decision. Authorizes the Board, if it finds a grievance meritorious, to direct the Department of State to: (1) pay for costs to the grievant to the same extent as such costs may be required under a specified section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; and (2) promote, assign, or take other remedial action. Requires the Secretary of State to implement the Board's decisions except to the extent that it would adversely affect U.S. foreign policy or national security. Requires any agency to make available to the Board any agency record requested unless the head of such agency personally certifies in writing to the Board that disclosure of the record to the Board and the grievant could not be made without adversely affecting U.S. foreign policy or national security. Authorizes a court granting relief to a grievant to include an award for costs. Authorizes the Secretary of State to obtain judicial review of a finding by the Board for the grievant.

Authorizes an individual holding a position on the effective date of its conversion to file a grievance with respect to any matter that would otherwise be allowed. Requires the grievance to be filed within three years of enactment of this Act.

Extends the period for conversion from the Foreign Service until June 30, 1985.

Requires the Secretary of State to include in each annual supplemental report to Congress on the Foreign Service specified information pertaining to members of the Senior Foreign Service.

Provides for payment of an annuity to a former spouse of a participant or former participant in the Foreign Service Retirement and Disability System. Repeals the current provisions for survivor benefits for certain former spouses. Requires the Secretary of State to inform affected former spouses of their rights to annuities.

Title II: Amendments to Title 5 of the United States Code - Limits payments for relocation expenses of Government employees in quarters located in an area designated as a high rate geographical area to $75 per day. Subjects reimbursement for subsistence expenses actually incurred to the daily rates.

Authorizes the payment of transportation expenses for the family of a Government employee when a separate maintenance allowance has been granted to the employee.

Authorizes advance payment of overseas differentials.

Authorizes payment of an education allowance or of travel costs to assist the employee with otherwise uncompensated expenses for education of the employee's children because of the employee's official assignment to serve in a foreign area or foreign areas. Authorizes the education allowance to include expenses for: (1) pre-kindergarten educational services for children with a handicapping condition; and (2) travel by an employee's dependents to and from a school in the United States to obtain a secondary or post-secondary college education.

Authorizes three months advance pay to an employee upon assignment to a post in the United States from a post in a foreign area.

Title III: Amendments to the Hostage Relief Act - Amends the Hostage Relief Act of 1980 to define "hostage period" to mean a period determined by the Secretary of State and published in the Federal Register. Defines "captive status" to mean a missing status arising because of a hostile action abroad which is directed against activities of the United States during the hostage period and which is identified by the Secretary of State.

Provides for the establishment of a savings fund for some or all of the pay and allowances of an American hostage who remains in captive status for 30 days or more.

Authorizes the payment of health care and related expenses of American hostages and the families to the extent such care: (1) is incident to that person being held hostage; (2) is not covered by insurance; and (3) is not covered by any other Government medical or health program.

Authorizes an agency to pay a spouse or child of an American hostage for education expenses. (Currently, such payment is required.) Authorizes payments for education or training of dependents and survivors of an American hostage on the same basis as educational assistance benefits are provided for dependents and survivors of other Federal employees except that in special circumstances the President may extend such benefits beyond the otherwise applicable cessation date. Prohibits providing such assistance to any individual who is eligible for similar assistance under another law.

Repeals specified provisions of the Hostage Relief Act of 1980 including provisions: (1) excluding compensation of a hostage from the gross income of the hostage; (2) exempting hostages from income tax where death results from the captivity; and (3) requiring a report on the tax treatment of hostages.

Authorizes the President to provide a payment to an American hostage or to the surviving spouse or dependent of an American hostage who dies in captive status.

Title IV: Miscellaneous Amendments Relating to Foreign Affairs Agencies - Amends the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 to repeal the provision authorizing the use of government vehicles or taxis to transport State Department employees in foreign countries to and from work when public transportation facilities are unsafe.

Makes State Department funds available for expenses: (1) of international arbitrations of international disputes under international agreements; and (2) arbitrations arising under contracts authorized by law for the performance of services or acquisition of property abroad.

Authorizes payment of subsistence expenses for certain employees of U.S. Information Agency and the U.S. International Development Cooperation Agency.

Amends the Inspector General Act of 1978 to establish an Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Information Agency.