Pompeo Ignores Plea From Diplomats With Children With Special Needs

[demmiblue]

Source: Foreign Policy

State Department diplomats who have children with disabilities and mental health issues say U.S. 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.

A group of foreign service officers representing some 1,400 families sent Pompeo a letter in May saying the State Department had slashed benefit options and funding for children with special needs.

In the letter, obtained recently by Foreign Policy, the officials warned that the State Department Bureau of Medical Services was taking “deleterious actions” to restrict funding access for benefits the department is required to offer under U.S. disability law.

Now, nearly three months later, the secretary of state has yet to respond to the letter.

Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/14/exclusive-pompeo-ignores-plea-from-diplomats-with-children-with-special-needs-disabilities-mental-health-issues-diplomacy-state-department-medical-bureau/

[turbinetree]

1. This fucker is just like the fucker that did this................and all of those fuckers laughing..

sitting down behind him........................FUCK YOU

[justhanginon]

2. And trump is supposedly upset because the New York upper class

social set never accepted him. It may be because he is a heartless vile, tasteless and disgusting person completely devoid of class at any level. No one I know would want to associate with that.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Filthy fucking scum, and the push is coming to shove, decent people are gonna take only so much

[Mc Mike]

4. Pro family repugs.

Pompeo is the congressman from Koch.

[catbyte]

5. Is any of the surprising given his track record of compassion through the years?

They'd probably resuscitate the Nazi's eugenics plot if they thought they could get away with it. Do away with all those childhood "pre-existing conditions" that costs insurers so much money.


[IMG][/IMG]

[atreides1]

13. One thing you forgot to list

That not only did Donald Trump cut off health insurance, he was supported in that decision by his siblings...to include his sister the federal judge!!!

Which goes to show that the only good one was Fred, because the rest of them lack any humanity at all!!!!

[EttuBrute]

6. Pond Scum

Pompeo is pond scum.

[ck4829]

21. Lower

[not fooled]

7. Moscow donnie and his cabal

HATE Federal employees. Their agenda is to eviscerate OUR Federal government. They are pass-through puppets enacting the kook brothers agenda, which means destroying anything that makes Federal jobs desirable.

And many Federal employees voted for the maggot.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. FVMA---Family Values My ass

[ck4829]

22. Nice, +1

[Recursion]

9. Yeah, it's some absolute bullshit

Speaking as a State Department dependent: I'M FUCKING SORRY THAT IT COSTS A LOT TO HOUSE US OVERSEAS.

I really fucking am.

Now: these professionals deserve to not have the fucking rug pulled out from under them like this.

[Lefta Dissenter]

11. Just be sure

you stay healthy.

[Recursion]

12. The India tour absolutely wrecked my health

It's just what it is. The ones who do China get it worse. I'm only now getting all my respiratory function back, 3 years later.

[Lefta Dissenter]

14. Wow

That's scary. Of course, this administration thinks that's just fine. If people in India and China can have that air, so can we! Regulation be damned!

[Recursion]

15. I mean, some things cant be helped

We need consular and diplomatic staff in India and China. Those countries have horrible air quality. Those of us who take this on know what that meas.

I'm absolutely not looking for pity or anything. I'm just saying that if people think diplomats lead these cushy, extravagant lives, that's not what it is at all. We do sacrifice a lot for this service.

[Lefta Dissenter]

10. I'm speechless

My first grandchild is due to be born to my diplomat son and his diplomat wife in about a week. I can't even come up with words to express how I feel about this news story.

[Recursion]

16. Ah, OK, I see you know

Sorry if I sounded like I was lecturing upthread.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

18. You didn't sound like you were lecturing.

You sounded an alarm. Voters should know what is happening to government staffers, especially those who are stationed overseas. This is wrong. Horribly wrong.

I remember when trump demanded that all embassy staff return to the US immediately, as opposed to the usual end of the (school-year) spring session. This was not just a simple disruption to people's lives. Many of them had a VERY difficult time making those arrangements to be back here by the end of the week (after he took office) for all manner of reasons. They had no notice that this was coming, so no one had prepared to move that quickly. Some had family in the middle of medical treatment, for some it was children, for still others, there was sensitive work in process. These people begged for more time, trump simply did not care. There was no practical reason for this -- he just wanted to oust anyone from the Obama staff. I had friends who had to leave their entire lives halfway around the world in six days. This was dispicable treatment for hard-working Americans doing important and sensitive work.

Please take care of yourself and I wish you all the best.

[Lefta Dissenter]

24. Not at all, Recursion

I wish more people would speak up.

One of my good friends through the Kerry campaign was a former diplomat who had spent most of his career in Eastern Europe. He was well into his eighties at the time that we were working on the campaign together. I got to know his adult daughters pretty well, too. They reflected the best of what it meant to grow up in the Foreign Service. They sure helped me through my early fears when my son announced that he was going to apply to the Foreign Service. My friend has since passed away, but his calm, reassuring, thoughtful demeanor sure was in stark contrast to what we're seeing in this current administration.

My son was working in Pakistan at the time of the 2016 election. I wanted him to just pack his bags and come home. Fortunately, he has a longer vision for what he has to offer to our country, so he finished out his posting in Pakistan, though the work they did was greatly diminished by Tillerson's decimation of our diplomatic goals.

[csziggy]

17. I was ready to blame a Trump appointee until I got to the end of the article

From the article linked in the OP:

According to the letter sent from the alliance, the problems center around Kathy Gallardo, the deputy medical director in the directorate for mental health programs, who helps oversee special needs education funding and benefits for State Department officials and their families traveling to assignments overseas.

“The common denominator during the past four years of worsening conditions is management of these programs by Dr. Kathy Gallardo,” the letter said.

It said Gallardo “rejected, or ignored for months, memos we sent to MED suggesting reforms or posing questions” and asked for Pompeo to help the bureau replace Gallardo. Two officials say she was promoted and given an indefinite extension in her role, which is supposed to be a two-year term.

She was not put in place by the Trump administration - but it seems she was even more empowered by it.

[appalachiablue]

19. Hard Eugenics reviving

[Achilleaze]

20. republicans pissing on families

sheesh

[ROB-ROX]

23. SUE THE TURD

The employees should take their information to the public. They should sue the government agency and the boss who is a TURD. Only when the EVIL turds are taken in the light can goodness correct the wrongs of the RE-THUGS.........

[ck4829]

25. Kick