Rubio announces hundreds of job cuts, office closures at State Department

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announcing plans to reorganize the State Department

The restructuring entails cutting 700 jobs and closing 132 offices. The Associated Press reports Rubio sent an email to staff saying

quote, we cannot win the battle for the 21st century with bloated bureaucracy

that stifles innovation and misallocates scarce resources, end quote. He went on to state the current department had become

more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests

It's the latest effort by the Trump administration to reduce the size of the federal government

and cut spending. The restructuring includes reassigning duties for the U.S. Agency for

International Development, recently dismantled by the Department of Government Deficiency. U.S. aid oversaw foreign aid and was the subject of a court fight when the Trump administration

attempted to eliminate it. The Wall Street Journal reports the State Department is keeping the bureaus that deal with human rights and refugees but repositioning them under a new office that will coordinate foreign aid and humanitarian issues The plan calls for consolidating 734 bureaus into 602 and moving 137 other offices to a different location

The AP reports offices on Africa affairs, migration issues, and democracy efforts survived

However, the Office of Global Women's Issues and the diversity, equity, and inclusion push will be cut

While Secretary of State Rubio touts the plan as meeting the challenges of the 21st century and putting America first

Daryl Grisgraber from the humanitarian organization Oxfam America told the Associated Press

it creates uncertainty and will, quote, only make the world a more unstable, unequal place for us all

While the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho

called it a vision to remake the State Department for this century

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