The State Department aims to cut some 3,400 employees beginning in early June, substantially more than generally expected, according to the agency’s briefings to lawmakers and employees with knowledge of the matter.
That’s because the 700 jobs that will be cut in a departmental reorganization will not count toward the planned 15-percent reduction in the department’s roughly 17,000-person domestic workforce, and because foreign service officers whose jobs are eliminated are not expected to be permitted to apply for other roles.
These details, which could be altered before final notices go out, were spelled out in State officials’ notes of a meeting obtained by Government Executive and corroborated by employees familiar with the meeting and the department’s plan.
Some current FSOs suggested that barring them from applying for other roles would not comply with the Foreign Affairs Manual; they said the briefers may have erroneously explained the situation.
Undersecretaries throughout State are finalizing their staff-cutting plans, which they must turn in by May 19. By June 2, office eliminations will begin and RIF notices will start to go out. The reorganization will be fully implemented by July 1, according to the internal readout, which was corroborated by multiple people.
Already, employees to be cut in the reorganization and in the larger staff-reduction effort have begun to receive informal notifications. Some foreign service officers who were preparing to start new roles in coming weeks have been told those positions will no longer exist, employees said. That includes some staff in the Bureau of Energy Resources, for example, and employees set to embed in international organizations such as the World Trade Organization and United Nations.
State officials told lawmakers that they will not need to lay off 3,400 employees if some take the latest “deferred resignation” offer or otherwise depart voluntarily. But they said that the reduction will focus on actual people, meaning that eliminating an unfilled position will not count toward the goal.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs, about half of whose 2,400 domestic employees process visas and passports, is exempted from the cuts. That means the rest of State will lose about 20 percent of its domestic workforce.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which received the briefing, did not return a request for comment. The meeting notes were provided to Government Executive from sources inside the executive branch.
State officials have said that the cuts affect only domestic staff. The department told employees last month it had not yet determined whether it would close any embassies, consulates or overseas posts, though State officials briefing Capitol Hill staff said there were no current plans to close any of them. The officials said they could not confirm there would not be embassy closures in the future.
State has approved 200 positions to convert to Schedule Policy/Career—a designation formerly known as Schedule F that will make it easier to fire employees for politically motivated reasons—a relatively small figure relative to the approaches of some other agencies.
The department is set to eliminate all of its special envoys that are not mandated by law and currently filled. Some offices set for elimination will see their statutorily authorized staff transferred to other entities within State, such as some of the employees in the Global Women’s Issues employees. All functions with the Executive Secretariat will be consolidated within Rubio’s office.
Congressional staff told State officials some of their proposals would require legislative action and asked if the department would pursue that path, according to the briefing readout, but the officials said they had no plan to do so.
Various cybersecurity and intelligence units within the agency are expected to undergo changes, the readout stated. The Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy—which focuses on advancing U.S. interests in cyberspace and developing stronger digital age alliances—is expected to be broken up, with three undersecretaries managing the office’s new tranches, Politico reported recently.
There were bipartisan concerns about breaking up that cyber office, according to the summary of the meeting. The bureau’s work focused on digital freedom will be incorporated into the office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, the summary added.
All matters pertaining to security-related assistance will be consolidated under the Office of the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security. Additionally, analytical functions of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations will be transferred into State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, an intelligence community office that protects the agency’s top-secret networks and produces insights for diplomatic decisions.
That described change to the CSO office is not explicitly reflected in the department’s updated organizational chart. Similarly, the Office of Global Criminal Justice—described in the briefing as being reassigned to the Office of the Legal Adviser—does not appear on the chart.
Frank Konkel contributed to this report.
