President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to overhaul US diplomatic corps and cut jobs, officials said.
Federal workers wonder what will be next after a massive layoff.
From wildfire resilience to local farmers’ support: What is at risk in large layoffs?
WASHINGTON – The State Department will soon begin sending notices to members of the workforce affected by the restructuring, agency management said Thursday.
“Now the department will communicate with individuals affected by the power cut,” Michael Rigas said in an email to the workforce, deputy secretary of management and resources.
“When notifications are made, the department will enter the final stages of the reorganization and focus their attention on providing outcome-driven diplomacy,” Rigas said.
The move is the first step in a restructuring that Trump tried to ensure that US foreign policy was consistent with his “American first” agenda. It will likely bring hundreds of job cuts, including members of the elite foreign ministry defending US interests in the face of increasing assertion from enemies such as China and Russia.
State Department officials have not said publicly when the initial notice of the planned layoffs is sent, but the broad expectation is that the end will begin on Friday.
The Supreme Court has clarified how the Trump administration pursues job cuts and drastic downsizing of numerous institutions.
In February, Trump issued an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to revamp foreign services to ensure that the Republican president’s foreign policy is implemented “faithfully.” He also repeatedly pledged to “clean deep conditions” by firing bureaucrats he considers dishonest.
Neither Riga nor other State Department officials specified how many people would be fired, but in a plan sent to Congress in May, the department proposed to fire nearly 1,900 employees of the estimated domestic workforce of 18,000. Another 1,575 were estimated to have resigned.
The Congressional plan did not specify how many of these people are civil servants or how many are from foreign services, but said that over 300 734 offices and offices would be streamlined, merged or eliminated.
“Too bureaucratic” doesn’t work
Last week, more than 130 retired diplomats and other former U.S. officials issued open letters criticizing the planned overhaul.
One criticism is directed at the firing of potentially hundreds of US foreign ministers who are assessed based on years of experience, knowledge and language skills in a particular field and region of the world.
The administration dismantled many diversity and inclusion efforts as it vowed to regain the “merit.” Most, if not all, of the State Department’s DEI programme, have been cancelled.
U.S. officials said the layoff criteria are based on the functions of the department as seen by agencies, and based on the personnel who are responsible, overlapping responsibility and occupy those roles.
“The focus is first on the ORG charts: a more efficient, competent, quick and effective function of the State Department,” said a senior State Department official speaking to reporters anonymously.
“If something is too big and bureaucratic and needs to change to actually function and to deliver projects and actions, it has to change,” department spokesman Tammy Bruce told the news briefing previously.
As part of the reorganization, Congressional notices sent to Congress eliminate the role of top officials for civilian security, democracy and human rights, along with offices monitoring war crimes and conflicts around the world.
The new Senate’s accused role under the secretary of foreign aid and humanitarian affairs is to “oversee the new branch of the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Department, which is to reorganize “sectoral values-based diplomacy” led by the deputy secretary on democracy and Western values into “western values-based diplomacy.”
David Branstrom and Ismail Shakil of Reuters contributed.
