Senators worry about Bush appointee's commitment to racial diversity
 A pair of Democratic senators are criticizing President George W. Bush's pick to head the US Agency for International Development over what they see as her failure to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the US Foreign Service.
Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) expressed their reservations during the Thursday confirmation hearing for Henrietta Holsman Fore to serve as Deputy Secretary of State and head of USAID. Fore's place in the Bush administration drew controversy several years ago due to remarks she made in 1987 in which she seemed to call Latinos 'lazy' and suggested that black employees in a factory she owned preferred dealing drugs to working.
The senators used the earlier incident as a point of departure for their current scrutiny.
"I know that there are those who have concerns about statements made in the past...but what I'm concerned with is in the actions," Senator Menendez said to Fore, who is leaving her post as Undersecretary of State for Management to head USAID, in the Thursday confirmation hearing. "I'm not particularly impressed with the State Department's representation of minorities in general, and I'm not impressed with it during your watch."
Obama, who did not attend the Thursday hearing, agreed with Menendez.
"I have concerns...about the data on recruitment, promotion and retention of minority employees provided by Ms. Fore," the Illinois Democrat and 2008 presidential hopeful said in a prepared statement. "Minorities have been hired during Ms. Fore’s tenure, but the fraction of minority employees at State has decreased slightly instead of increasing. The overall promotion rate for African Americans and Hispanics decreased from 2005 to 2006."
But a statement released to RAW STORY by the State Department challenged the idea that Fore has not made progress on promoting a diverse workforce.
"Under Secretary Fore is passionate about ensuring that diversity is respected and thriving at the Department of State, and she frequently reiterates this message to her senior managers," the statement said. "In her role overseeing the Department’s Bureau of Human Resources, she emphasizes the importance of diversity in how the Department recruits, retains, positions, promotes and trains its personnel."
Race concerns create tumult for Bush official
Henrietta Holsman Fore headed the US Mint until President Bush nominated her to serve as Undersecretary of State for Management, where she oversaw workforce-related issues in the State Department and Foreign Service. In 2005, her appointment was almost derailed when a controversial speech she gave in 1987 at Wellesley College surfaced. Fore's remarks on race and ethnicity resulted in her resignation from the college's Board of Trustees.
Senator Obama and other legislators relented at the time of the 2005 appointment after Fore promised to make a priority of diversity issues and committed to meeting with the Congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses to discuss recruitment and retention of minorities. The State Department now says that Fore's 1987 remarks are no longer at issue.
"These comments were addressed in 2005, and she was confirmed unanimously," a State Department official told RAW STORY Monday morning. "And we understand that the remarks were taken out of context and do not reflect her views then or now."
While Fore's 1987 remarks may not be the most important issue, Senators like Menendez and Obama are still questioning whether she put the State Department on a better footing to promote diversity.
"In my view, this is the worst department of all the departments in the federal government in the reflection of those minorities in the service," Menendez said on Thursday. "It's got to change. I don't see the concurrent actions to make it happen."
Mixed indicators on race, ethnicity at State
The State Department counters that it has undertaken serious efforts under the tenure of Fore and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to improve the commitment to diversity.
For instance, Fore helped shepherd the creation of a Chief Diversity Officer at the State Department, which sits atop a "Diversity Governance Council to strengthen and communicate the Department’s commitment to diversity," according to a Departmental fact sheet. She also engaged in 'conversations' with representatives from private industry, academia, and non-governmental organizations on best practices to promote diversity. Finally, Fore met twice with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and also pointed to a number of meetings with individual members of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The Department believes that some statistical indicators show the results of Fore's work. For instance, a survey on the 'best places to work in the federal government' found the Department ranked 3rd in 'support for diversity.'
African-American employees ranked the Department of State fourth highest in terms of job satisfaction. The survey did not have results among Hispanic/Latino employees, although they make up 5.3% of the Department's workforce. Asian-Americans, about 5.2% of the Department's employees, ranked State 17th in job satisfaction.
Staff also pointed to the results of a survey by the firm Universum in which minority undergraduate students ranked the State Department highly as a potential employer. Native American/American Indian undergraduates ranked State as their number one ideal employer, and Hispanic and African-American students both gave the State Department a #3 ranking.
In spite of this data, Senator Menendez expressed concerns about the Department's Senior Executive Service in the Thursday hearing, worrying that retention of minority employees at high levels had fallen under Fore's tenure.
"Under your tenure, minority employment in the Senior Executive Service actually decreased by 2% in 2005 and 2006, so we've virtually wiped out the improvement it took us six years to achieve," he said to Fore during the Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "How do we declare that a management success?"
Fore countered that retirement was the primary cause for the dip, and added that data for the current Fiscal Year was not yet available. State Department officials said they could not offer a preview of the data, which is set to be published on Sept. 30.
Earlier, RAW STORY also reported on other data from State Department surveys which appear to show difficulties with minority recruitment and retention. For instance, while minority students considered State an 'ideal employer,' there was a 3.7% dip in the number of minority students joining the Foreign Service from Fiscal Year 2005 to 2006.
Additionally, an increasing number of employees expressed an unwillingness to identify their racial or ethnic backgrounds, potentially complicating measurements of racial and ethnic diversity within the Department. While approximately 1 in 10 failed to identify their racial or ethnic heritage in the 2003 survey, in 2006 the number increased to approximately 1 in 5.
Departmental staff could offer no explanation for why members of the Department's workforce were unwilling to self-identify in their annual internal assessments.
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