Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of State’s staffing at overseas posts, focusing on: (1) the process used by State to determine how many of its U.S. diplomatic personnel are needed at each location; (2) State’s efforts to improve this process; and (3) the process State used to identify the 17 posts closed in 1993 and 1994. GAO found that: (1) State does not use an objective, quantifiable methodology based on U.S. foreign policy priorities for determining the number of personnel needed at overseas posts; (2) using a rank ordering of posts could ensure that lower-ranked posts do not have more staff than needed; (3) senior State officials have acknowledged that the personnel management and allocation process does not adequately link personnel resources with policy priorities; (4) State officials are working to develop a resource management strategy to meet priority goals; (5) since 1991, State has been developing a methodology to establish staffing level benchmarks for individual countries based on their importance to U.S. interests; and (6) State did not base its post closure decisions on agencywide policy priorities, but rather on geographic bureau objectives and priorities.