Secretary of State Marco Rubio is eliminating his department's main bureau focused on democracy and human rights as part of a reorganization of the agency’s operations announced Tuesday.
Rubio said the moves are aimed at reducing bloat at the State Department, consolidating operations and eliminating programs the administration sees as advancing a liberal agenda. Civil rights advocates say the programs are important to promoting U.S. values of freedom and democracy.
The cuts reportedly eliminate about 17 percent of the agency’s total number of offices, with Rubio looking to further downsize the number of employees based in the U.S. by 15 percent, according to The New York Times.
The largest cut focused on the office of the Undersecretary for civilian, security, democracy and human rights, which housed seven bureaus related to migration, democracy, religious freedom, criminal justice, drug trafficking and more.
It was re-named the Office of the Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs, with two bureaus under its purview: an assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and religious freedom, and an assistant secretary for population refugees and migration.
Some other offices were moved under other bureaus. The bureau of international narcotics and law enforcement shifted under the responsibility of the Bureau of Arms Control and International Security.
Other apparent cuts included offices overseeing conflict stabilization and operations, global criminal justice, and monitoring and combating trafficking in persons.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said just because a bureau appears removed from the agency’s organization chart, doesn’t mean its operations will end.
“Especially when we’re talking about war crimes and things immediately that are moving on the ground, this is the kind of adjustment and reorganization that makes it better,” she said.
The reorganization marks the latest step by Rubio to re-make the State Department as part of the Trump administration’s larger efforts to downsize government agencies. The reorganization does not, yet, address America’s presence overseas.
A draft executive order, first reported by the New York Times on Sunday, details a potentially sweeping reduction in U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.
“This is an organizational roadmap for this department here, right in Washington, DC, the arguments about what will occur in other countries, you're talking about embassies and consulates, that's not addressed here,” Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.
The reorganization follows the Trump administration’s effective elimination of the U.S. Agency of International Development (USAID), an independent branch of the State Department, with an estimated $40 billion budget focused largely on humanitarian aid.
Democrats and human rights advocates accuse the administration the abdicating U.S. soft power on the global stage.
USAID’s elimination was largely handled by Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which critics say took a sledgehammer approach with no concern for harm or consequences to America’s security and relationships.
Former acting undersecretary for management Tibor Nagy wrote in an op-ed that the destruction of USAID was like watching a “tragicomedy with the Twilight Zone. The tragic part was that it could have been done much better, and the people impacted didn’t have to be treated so badly.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement she would scrutinize Rubio's proposed reorganization and its compliance with federal law.
“As I and many of my Democratic colleagues have made clear, we welcome reforms where needed — but they must be done with care,” Shaheen said in a statement.
“The lack of transparency to date only underscores that they know this process has been deeply flawed. I will be scrutinizing these proposed reforms, which must be done with close consultation with Congress and in compliance with the law. And I will hold Secretary Rubio to his pledge to appear before our Committee and engage with Congress on the future of the State Department.”
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