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unfortunately this measured, calibrated approach was are rejected twice in favor of the largess in this spending bill. in trying to justify the enormous spending increases in this bill, supporters paint a picture of a hollowed out shell of a state department suffering years of neglect. yet according to the congressional research service and the state department s own data, funding for the state department and related agencies doubled from fiscal year 2000 through 2008 this clearly shows that growing the bureaucracy and throwing money at the department of state are not the answers. supporters of this bill further argue that the major funding increases for the hiring of new staff are necessary even in the absence of reforms. i note that there was an effort last congress by colleagues in the other chamber to ascertain the levels of absenteeism at various u.s. government agencies. the results for the state department for impressive, in an ironic way. the department explaine ....