State Department to Hire 1,100 New Diplomats

President Bush wants to hire nearly 1100 new diplomats to address severe staffing shortages and put the State Department on track to meet an ambitious call to double its size over the next decade. The additional positions are part of an $8.2 billion request for State Department operations for the 2009 budget year that Bush submitted to Congress. That request would be $690 million, or 9.1 percent, above the current level for department operations. They spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the public release of the spending plan for the budget year that begins Oct l.