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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Ignores Plea From Diplomats With Children With Special Needs
The concerted effort to destroy the State Department has been ongoing since Trump took office, first under Rex Tillerson and now under tea-party, Koch Brother favorite Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. Today, we learn a shockingly evil new one they're eroding our State Department.... through harming children....
State Department diplomats who have children with disabilities and mental health issues say Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been ignoring their pleas for help in a struggle they’ve been waging for more than a year now against the erosion of their medical and education benefits. State Department Bureau of Medical Services.... taking “deleterious actions” to restrict funding access for benefits the department is required to offer under U.S. disability law.
A group of 1,400 families sent Pompeo a letter in May describing the State Department's slashed funding for children with special needs. But it's been three months and Pompeo has not responded. Of course he hasn't. This is part of the plan to force the State Department to crumble.
As U.S. diplomats travel to assignments around the world, the State Department’s medical bureau ensures they and their family members are healthy enough to live in the assigned country. In the case of some 1,400 families with children with special needs, the bureau is also in charge of ensuring adequate care is available in the assigned country.
....the medical office has been arbitrarily cutting funding for children with autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or other special needs or mental health issues. It has also revoked the medical clearances for some children that are required for foreign posting, forcing some diplomats out of their jobs because of their children’s special needs.
....the medical bureau is still forcing foreign service officers to cut short their postings at embassies abroad because the bureau is withdrawing medical clearances for their family members with special needs....
“The State Department is suffering as an institution due to these practices. Employees hired to advance U.S. interests are unnecessarily distracted trying to navigate a process that is often arbitrary, opaque, and oppositional,” the letter said. "....prevents employees from being able to serve in areas where they have regional, language, and subject matter expertise and would be most effective in advancing U.S. interests."
In one instance, the bureau....told a foreign service officer that providing support benefits for their child with special needs, approved years earlier, was a mistake. Now, the family would have to return tens of thousands of dollars for years of back benefits.... some foreign service officers are being forced to take out loans to try to pay back the benefits and are contemplating quitting the State Department.
Sickening.