The President may assign a career member of the Service to serve as charge d’affaires or otherwise as the head of a mission (or as the head of a United States office abroad which is designated under section 3902(a)(3) [1] of this title by the Secretary of State as diplomatic in nature) for such period as the public interest may require.
The Secretary of State, in conjunction with the heads of the other agencies utilizing the Foreign Service personnel system, shall implement policies and procedures to insure that Foreign Service officers and members of the Senior Foreign Service of all agencies are able to compete for chief of mission positions and have opportunities on an equal basis to compete for assignments outside their areas of specialization.