Rubio Announces Major Cuts at State Dept., Accusing It of ‘Radical’ Ideology

from the NYT

Secretary of State Marco Rubio unveiled a plan on Tuesday to make major cuts to the State Department as part of a restructuring, calling the government’s diplomatic agency “bloated, bureaucratic” and “beholden to radical political ideology.”

Mr. Rubio released the plan in the form of an organizational chart and a brief official statement. The move is the latest by the Trump administration to reduce and reshape the government to a degree unseen in generations, which critics call a shortsightedly blunt assault on the federal bureaucracy.

The announcement on Tuesday is only the first step in an overhaul of the department. It focused on changes to operations in Washington, but the cuts will affect the work of embassies and consulates overseas. Closures of diplomatic missions and layoffs abroad are expected later, according to U.S. officials and earlier leaked memos.

 

The most dramatic change is the elimination of the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights, which is charged with advancing American values around the world. Trump administration officials call the office a hotbed of liberal activism.

Some elements of that office, including a bureau for democracy and human rights and one for refugees, would be cut and folded into an office for foreign assistance and humanitarian aid, according to the reorganization chart posted on the State Department website. A counternarcotics bureau would also be cut and moved under an international security office.

The department released an internal fact sheet that provided more details on Mr. Rubio’s plan, including reducing the agency’s total number of bureaus and offices from 734 to 602, or by 18 percent. About 700 positions would be cut, a senior department official said. The sheet did not specify the vast majority of the offices, though two prominent ones to be eliminated are Global Criminal Justice and Conflict and Stabilization Operations.

It also said that Mr. Rubio had instructed senior officials to deliver plans soon to reduce the number of U.S.-based employees by 15 percent.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported the existence of a draft document labeled an “executive order” that outlined plans for a drastic restructuring of the department.

It included elements in Mr. Rubio’s announcement, even though the secretary said on Sunday that the Times report was “fake news.” The earlier document included the significant proposal to eliminate the office of the under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights. It was unclear who had written the earlier document or what stage of internal debate it reflected, but diplomats circulated the draft over the weekend, and congressional offices are scrutinizing it.

A proposal in that document to get rid of the bureau of African affairs was not in the plan announced on Tuesday. But U.S. officials say the State Department aims to close some embassies and consulates across Africa, and an earlier memo has a proposed list.

In his brief statement, Mr. Rubio said the State Department’s size and costs had “soared” over the past 15 years, and he argued the new plan would focus the agency on “America’s core national interests.”..

The bureau for democracy, human rights and labor, Mr. Rubio said, had become a “platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas” against conservative foreign leaders, including those in Poland, Hungary and Brazil. He also said it had tried to push a policy of an arms embargo against Israel...

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