Democratic legislation aims to address State Department restrictions on certain diplomats

Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation to address long-standing complaints that the State Department places disproportionate restrictions on the places diplomats of certain backgrounds can serve and that there is no independent appeals process to challenge decisions.

"To strengthen American foreign policy and diplomacy, we must ensure our best and brightest individuals are able to serve," said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, who introduced the bill with Reps. Joaquin Castro of Texas, Andy Kim of New Jersey and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania. "The State Department's Assignment Restrictions Policy is discriminatory, disproportionately impacts federal employees who can't trace their heritage to the Mayflower and directly undermines the department's goal of promoting diversity and inclusion."

The State Department's assignment restrictions are applied by the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, sometimes to employees who otherwise hold top-secret clearances, to prevent them from serving in particular countries or even, while they're in Washington, from working on issues related to those countries.