Rubio plans to close offices in overhaul of ‘bloated’ US State Department

WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to reorganise what he called a “bloated” State Department, vowing on April 22 to cut programmes and close offices but stopping short of a proposed executive order that outlined even more drastic changes.

The top US diplomat circulated a new organisational chart that would downgrade the office that oversees democracy and human rights and shut offices responsible for women’s issues, global health security, and diversity and inclusion.

Mr Rubio’s plan is in keeping with example set by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which previously shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and put its functions under direct control of the State Department, department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

“In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition,” Mr Rubio said in a statement.

“Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy.”

Mr Rubio said the plan will combine some region-specific functions, close redundant offices and cut some programmes that are “misaligned with America’s core national interests.”

He also channelled rhetoric used by President Donald Trump, saying the department had created a system that had become “beholden to radical political ideology.”

Ms Bruce, the spokeswoman, said that the proposal, which could still change, is “returning the State Department to its traditional base.”

In an email to State Department staff that was seen by Bloomberg News, Mr Rubio said the reorganisation will be led by Mr Michael Rigas, Mr Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of state for management and resources, once he is confirmed.

The reorganisation announced on April 22 focuses “only on the Department’s domestic offices and will not affect any overseas embassies, posts or operations,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said, in a subsequent email to staff seen by Bloomberg News.

That did not appear to rule out such changes in the future.

Mr Rubio’s proposal may come as a relief to some diplomats who had feared even more extensive changes as outlined in a proposed executive order that circulated in recent weeks.

That proposal would have shut down embassies across Africa, closed the bureau that liaises with the United Nations and cut diplomatic operations in Canada, among other places.

But Mr Eric Rubin, a retired career ambassador who also served as president of the State Department’s union and professional association, said that there may be more cuts to staffing and more changes at State beyond those announced on April 22.

“This is by no means the package,” Mr Rubin predicted.

The public announcement was short on details and said only that the changes would be implemented “methodically” in coming months.

But Mr Rubio’s X account linked to a story in the Free Press that said the State Department plans to close 132 offices, a number equivalent to 17 per cent of all department offices, including those for human rights and preventing war crimes.

The changes will result in the elimination of 700 positions, the Free Press said, citing internal documents. Under secretaries are also being asked to cut their personnel by 15 per cent, and the department is transferring 137 offices to other areas of the agency to consolidate programmes, the Free Press said.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that she welcomes reforms where needed, but that she would scrutinise the changes closely, and urged Mr Rubio to engage with Congress about the future of the department.

Mr Musk has engaged in a “slash-and-burn campaign targeting federal employees, terminating critical programs at State and USAID, undermining our allies and diminishing American leadership in the world,” Ms Shaheen said. BLOOMBERG