State Department notifies Congress of reorganization plan with bigger
cuts to programs and staff
[May 30, 2025]
By FARNOUSH AMIRI, MATTHEW LEE and REBECCA SANTANA
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Thursday notified Congress of
an updated reorganization of the massive agency, proposing cuts to
programs beyond what had previously been revealed by Secretary of State
Marco Rubio and a steeper 18% reduction of staff in the U.S.
The planned changes, detailed in a notification letter obtained by The
Associated Press, reflect the Trump administration's push to reshape
American diplomacy and scale back the size of the federal government.
The restructuring has been 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.
The proposal includes an even higher reduction of domestic staff than
the 15% initially floated in April. The department is also planning to
eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America's two-decade
involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling
Afghan nationals who worked alongside the U.S. military.
The letter sent to Congress by the State Department notes that the
reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, saying
it's eliminating divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping
work and that Rubio believes “effective modern diplomacy requires
streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.”
The document is clear that the reorganization is also intended to
eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and
immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the
Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way
that is incompatible with its priorities and policies.
“These offices, which have proven themselves prone to ideological
capture and radicalism, will be either eliminated, with their statutory
functions realigned elsewhere in the department, or restructured to
better reflect their appropriate scope and the administration’s foreign
policy priorities,” the notification says.
The reorganization notes USAID's dismantlement and the shifting of some
of its work to the State Department, particularly under a vastly
restructured Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. PRM, as it is
known, will have under its responsibility U.S. international disaster
relief operations that had previously been tasked to USAID.
Under the new scheme, PRM also will shift from facilitating migration
into the United States to focusing on migrants targeted for deportation
and "supporting the administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to
their country of origin or legal status,” the notification said.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies before House Committee on
Appropriations subcommittee budget hearing for the Department of
State and related programs on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday,
May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The bureau “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of
migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” it said.
Another office tasked with human rights issues and refugees also is
being renamed and having its focus shifted to reflect an emphasis on
border security issues.
The bureaus set to be cut 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. The letter
says the women's issues office is being eliminated to “ensure that
promoting women’s rights and empowerment is a priority across the
full scope of the Department’s diplomatic engagement.”
Efforts to cut the department's Afghan programs received immediate
backlash from veterans groups and advocates who have spent the last
three and a half years since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
working to resettle and integrate Afghans into life in the U.S.
“This is not streamlining,” said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and
head of #AfghanEvac. “This is deliberate dismantling.”
CARE, which stands for the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation
Efforts, was created in October 2021 in the aftermath of the
withdrawal. The office was designed to help Afghans, like
interpreters who aided the U.S. military, who were eligible for
resettlement in the U.S. due to their work helping America during
the war.
The State Department notification says its work will be “realigned”
to the Afghanistan Affairs Office.
Over time, CARE was credited with streamlining visa and immigration
processes that many people helping Afghans and Iraqis, who benefited
from similar resettlement programs, said were overly bureaucratic,
opaque and left at-risk Afghans waiting for far too long on programs
specifically intended to help them.
In December, then-President Joe Biden signed the National Defense
Authorization Act, which included a provision authorizing the CARE
office for three years, but ever since President Donald Trump took
office, concerns have loomed over the office’s future.
“Eliminating it — without public explanation, transition planning,
or reaffirmation of mission — is a profound betrayal of American
values and promises,” VanDiver added.
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Amiri reported from New York.
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