Marco Rubio announces a massive State Department overhaul, including 15% staff cuts and closures of 100 stations around the world
Secretary of StateMarco RubioOn Tuesday, it announced a major State Department overhaul, plans to cut US staff by 15%, and closed and consolidated more than 100 stations around the world as part of the Trump administration’s “America First” mandate.
The reorganization plan, announced by Rubio on social media and detailed in a document obtained by the Associated Press, is the latest White House effort to rethink US foreign policy.Reduce the size of the federal government. The reorganization was partially driven by the need to find a new home forRemaining features of the US International Development AgencyTrump administration officials and billionaires alliesElon MuskThere is government efficiencyDismantling.
“We cannot win the battle of the 21st century with a bloated bureaucracy that suppresses innovation and falsely seduces rare resources,” Rubio said in a department-wide email obtained by the AP. He said the reorganization was intended to “address the immeasurable challenges of the 21st century and put America first.”
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce reflects that sentiment and says, “A radical change empowers our talented diplomats,” not an immediate layoff of personnel.
“It’s not something that people are fired today,” Bruce told reporters Tuesday. “They’re not going to leave the building. It’s not that dynamic. It’s a roadmap. It’s a plan.”
According to the fact sheet obtained by the AP, it includes consolidating 734 offices and offices up to 602 and migrating 137 offices to another location within the department.
There is a “rethinking” office focusing on foreign and humanitarian issues to coordinate remaining international aid programs at the State Department.
The plan will implement major changes to the department’s bureaucracy and personnel, but it is far less dramatic than the alleged reorganization plan distributed by some officials over the weekend. Numerous State Department officials, including Rubio himself, denied the plan being realistic.
The job, believed to be targeted for allegedly leaked documents, survived at least the name of the station on the charts in a plan announced by Rubio on Tuesday. These include the African issues, migration and refugee issues, and the office for democratic efforts.
It was not immediately known whether the US embassy was included in the planned closing installation. Previous reports of embassy wholesale closures, particularly in Africa, have raised warnings that it will reduce the US diplomatic capacity and affect it overseas.
Some of the bureaus expected to actually be cut in the new plan include the diversity and inclusive efforts of the Bureau of Global Women’s Issues and the Department of State.Removed the entire government under Trump.
Offices with a surge in expertise in war zones and other eruption crisis will be eliminated, but other departments focused on human rights will either be returned to justice or folded into other sections of the department.
Daryl Grisglover, a policy-driven leader with humanitarian organisation Oxfam America, said the development would create more “uncertainty” about the US’s ability to contribute to humanitarian conflict, “just make the world a more unstable and unequal place.”
It is unclear whether the reorganization will be implemented through executive orders or other means.
The plan came a week after the AP learned about the White House Business Budget OfficeProposed guttingThe State Department’s budget will increase by almost 50%, eliminating funding from the UN and NATO headquarters.
The budget proposal was still in a very preliminary stage and was not expected to pass the convened in Congress, but the restructuring plan received the initial approval from Republicans at Capitol Hill.
“While change is not easy, President Trump and Secretary Rubio have proposed a vision to reshape the State Department of the century and the battle we face and the fight that exists ahead of us,” Idaho Sen. Jim Lisch, Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Democrats have denounced the Trump administration’s latest attempt to encourage “a key component of American influence” on the global stage.
“This new restructuring plan raises serious concerns that the United States has no capacity or ability to demonstrate its global leadership, achieve important national security goals, stand up to the enemy, save lives and promote democratic values,” said Brian Schatz, a Democrat of Hawaii.
Some lawmakers said the move is a departure from work from Rubio, who is supported as a senator.
“The important work left on Secretary Rubio’s cutting-edge floor represents a key pillar of foreign policy that Democrats and Republicans have long supported.
The changes proposed by the State Department are as the Trump administration cuts interagency work and funding.Education DepartmentInHealth and Welfare Services.
As for foreign policy, beyond the destruction of the USAID, the administration has also moved to reimburse other “soft power” institutions, such as media that provide objective news, and often authoritarian countries, so-called “soft power” institutions.American voice,Middle East Broadcasting Network,Radio Free AsiaRadio/TV Multi broadcasts to Cuba.
This story was originally introduced Fortune.com