More than 3,400 U.S.-based employees will be let go or reorganized by the State Department on Friday, affecting bureaus covering Asia and the Middle East as well as seven divisions. Of these, 51 will be let go from the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The proposed cuts, which were shared with lawmakers and employees on Thursday, offer the first comprehensive outline of the administration’s strategy to address “bureaucratic overgrowth,” rethink bureau briefs, and combine desks to cut down on redundancy, according to a Government Executive.
The largest personnel loss, with 386 employees put off and 145 departing by mutual consent, will occur in Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs, which would face a 69% fall. 198 of the 297 workers that Economic Growth Energy and Environment will let off will be let go.
Arms Control and International Security, Public Diplomacy, and Public Affairs will each lose about 22% of their teams, or 168 and 245 personnel, respectively, while Political Affairs will lose 274 employees, 112 of whom will be laid off.
897 employees will be let go from the department’s Management section, which will also see a further 796 reduction in staff through deferred resignations.
The personnel complement at Rubio’s so-called “S Family” office will be reduced by 240, or 12%, although according to officials, all but 51 have chosen to go voluntarily.
The department, which stated that it would finish the modifications by July 1, emphasized that some employees would be relocated and that no one would be fired if their office vanished from the organizational structure.
Additionally, the human resources team promised to help foreign service personnel locate other jobs if their next deployment was cancelled.
The State Department maintained that layoffs, or reductions in force, had been carefully planned in accordance with all relevant laws and would not impact the department’s operations in a document prepared for Congress.
“Reductions will principally affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities,” according to the department.
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While the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor and Population, Refugees and Migration offices will be transferred to the undersecretary Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs’ purview, several offices that had become “prone to ideological capture and radicalism” will be eliminated, including the Civilian Security, Human Rights, and Democracy division.
A foreign service officer informed a government executive that the division in charge of foreign aid and humanitarian relief will be completely depleted as a result of the reforms.
The American Foreign Service Association, the union that represents employees, said it rejected the workforce changes “firmly and unequivocally,” voicing strong opposition to the plans. This came at a time when the efficacy of American diplomacy was already in jeopardy due to “an already stretched thin and under-resourced” State Department.
U.S. ambassador to Greece and Ukraine and former assistant secretary of state Geoffrey Pyatt joined the dissenters.
In April, Rubio unveiled his comprehensive overhaul of the service, which would include layoffs and retirements. He claimed that the department needed to be radically streamlined to better align with President Donald Trump’s policies since it had grown too large, costly, and bureaucratic in recent decades.
