Rubio unveils a massive overhaul of the State Department that would cut
staff and bureaus
[April 23, 2025]
By FARNOUSH AMIRI, MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a massive
overhaul of the State Department on Tuesday, with plans to reduce staff
in the U.S. by 15% while closing and consolidating more than 100 bureaus
worldwide as part of the Trump administration's “America First” mandate.
The reorganization plan, announced by Rubio on social media and detailed
in documents obtained by The Associated Press, is the latest effort by
the White House to reimagine U.S. foreign policy and scale back the size
of the federal government. The restructuring was driven in part by the
need to find a new home for the remaining functions of the U.S. Agency
for International Development, an agency that Trump administration
officials and billionaire ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government
Efficiency have dismantled.
“We cannot win the battle for the 21st century with bloated bureaucracy
that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources,” Rubio said
in a department-wide email obtained by AP. He said the reorganization
aimed to “meet the immense challenges of the 21st Century and put
America First.”
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce echoed that sentiment, saying
the “sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats" but would not
result in the immediate dismissal of personnel.
“It’s not something where people are being fired today," Bruce told
reporters Tuesday. "They’re not going to be walking out of the building.
It’s not that kind of a dynamic. It is a roadmap. It’s a plan.”
It includes consolidating 734 bureaus and offices down to 602, as well
as transitioning 137 offices to another location within the department
to "increase efficiency,” according to a fact sheet obtained by AP.
There will be a “reimagined” office focused on foreign and humanitarian
affairs to coordinate the aid programs overseas that remain at the State
Department.
Although the plan will implement major changes in the department’s
bureaucracy and personnel, it is far less drastic than an alleged
reorganization plan that was circulated by some officials over the
weekend. Numerous senior State Department officials, including Rubio
himself, denied that the plan was real.
Work that had been believed targeted in that alleged leaked document
survived — at least as bureau names on a chart — in the plan that Rubio
released Tuesday. That includes offices for Africa affairs, migration
and refugee issues, and democracy efforts.
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. embassies were included in the
installations slated for closing. The earlier reports of wholesale
closings of embassies, especially in Africa, had triggered warnings
about shrinking the U.S. diplomatic capacity and influence abroad.
Some of the bureaus that are indeed expected to be cut in the new plan
include the Office of Global Women's Issues and the State Department’s
diversity and inclusion efforts, which have been eliminated
government-wide under Trump.
An office charged with surging expertise to war zones and other erupting
crises will be eliminated, while other bureaus focused on human rights
and justice will be scaled back or folded into other sections of the
department.
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on upon his arrival at the
Quai d'Orsay, France's Minister of Foreign Affairs before a
bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in
Paris Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Julien de Rosa, Pool via AP)
Daryl Grisgraber, a policy lead with humanitarian organization Oxfam
America, said this development only creates more “uncertainty” about
the United States' ability to contribute to humanitarian conflicts
and will “only make the world a more unstable, unequal place for us
all.”
It is unclear if the reorganization would be implemented through an
executive order or other means.
The plans came a week after the AP learned that the White House’s
Office of Management and Budget proposed gutting the State
Department’s budget by almost 50% and eliminating funding for the
United Nations and NATO headquarters.
While the budget proposal was still in a highly preliminary phase
and not expected to pass muster with Congress, the reorganization
plan got an initial nod of approval from Republicans on Capitol
Hill.
“Change is not easy, but President Trump and Secretary Rubio have
proposed a vision to remake the State Department for this century
and the fights that we face today, as well as those that lie ahead
of us,” Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, Republican chair of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said in a statement.
Democrats, meanwhile, blasted the effort as the Trump
administration's latest attempt to gut “vital components of American
influence” on the world stage.
“On its face, this new reorganization plan raises grave concerns
that the United States will no longer have either the capacity or
capability to exert U.S. global leadership, achieve critical
national security objectives, stand up to our adversaries, save
lives, and promote democratic values,” Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian
Schatz said.
Some lawmakers said the move is a departure from the work Rubio
supported as a senator.
"The vital work left on Secretary Rubio’s cutting-room floor
represents significant pillars of our foreign policy long supported
by Democrats and Republicans alike, including former Senator Rubio —
not ‘radical ideologies’ as he now claims,” said New York Rep.
Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs
Committee.
The proposed changes at the State Department come as the Trump
administration has been slashing jobs and funding across agencies,
from the Education Department to Health and Human Services.
On foreign policy, beyond the destruction of USAID, the
administration also has moved to defund so-called other “soft power”
institutions like media outlets delivering objective news, often to
authoritarian countries, including the Voice of America, the Middle
East Broadcasting Networks, Radio Free Asia and Radio/TV Marti,
which broadcasts to Cuba.
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Amiri reported from the United Nations and Lee from London.
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