The State Department will start pruning at the beginning of Friday as it wants to cut the size of its American workforce by about 15%, CBS News has learned – part of the comprehensive plan of Trump Administration to reorganize the department.
Cuts will include pruning, or redeeration-in-force (RIF), as well as voluntary departure by the State Department employees who participated in the procurement programs of the Trump administration, two senior state department officials said on Thursday. The department is also closing or merging the score of the US-based offices and shortly after that it is re-organizing its organizational chart.
In the coming days, the total number of the required trimming will be “very close” for about 1,800 which were listed in one. Plan presented to Congress Earlier this year, a senior department official said.
According to the official, this time has not been planned to employees deployed abroad.
A draft reduction-in-force notice received by CBS News stated that the target is to “streamlined domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities.” This added the cuts “carefully prepared to impress non-core functions.”
Critics argue that the deduction may reduce the work of the State Department.
A few days after the Supreme Court, there has been a long -employed deduction Cleared the way The Trump administration plans to reduce the size of government employees for comprehensive plans, which stops the order of a lower court, which stopped the scheme of trimming in dozens of federal agencies.
The department employees were informed of the adjacent short-in-in-form schemes on Thursday afternoon by the State Deputy Secretary Michael Rigas received by CBS News, who thank the employees who face the “retrenchment” for the United States to “for their dedication and service to the United States.
Some employees were told that due to the anticipated RIF, they would not be allowed television on Friday, and should report to work with all department-coated equipment including laptops, telephone, diplomatic passports, travel cards, and any other property owned by the state department. An email with these instructions told the employees that the badge would be collected during outprocessing, and to ensure that any individual items were collected before that time.
The department told reporters that it is planning to operate the cut-force during the same day.
Trump Administration Plan Comprehensive State Department Reorganization
A senior state department official told reporters on Thursday that the agency would step into the “several weeks of transition period” in the new organization chart after the Reduction-in-Foce Notice goes out.
The official said that the change is aimed at “streamlining this puffed bureaucracy,” to cut down the futile departments, consolidate works such as human resources and finance and to handle specific sectors to handle more focus on foreign embassies and offices assigned to handle specific areas.
For example, the official said, there are several offices of the State Department that oversee sanctions.
“Now, no one is saying that those who were working in any of those sanctions were not doing a good work or not valuable members of the state department, but at the end of the day, what is right for the mission and what is right for American people, and it means that there is a joint ban office.”
Bureau of political affairs of the department – Who Involved Country-specific desks that handle the relationship of the United States with individual countries and regions-according to the officer, “a large extent is unaffected by cuts”.
Another senior official of the state department told reporters that “identified offices where natural capabilities could be found.”
State Secretary Marco Rubio told reporters during a visit to Malaysia on Thursday, “We took a very deliberate step to focus the state department more efficient and more focus.”
state Department Congress was formally told Regarding its restructuring plans in May, stating that it intends to eliminate about 3,400 US-based jobs and close or merge about half of its domestic offices. At that time, the department stated that it had planned to phase out some offices focused on democracy or human rights, claiming that “were prone to conceptual catch”, and add new offices focused on “civil freedom” and “free market principles”.
The scheme also integrates the previous works of the American agency for international development in the state department after Trump administration. Foreign aid went to closure agencyThat move has severely criticized, the Democrats argued that the agency was illegally closed, without permission from the Congress and Human group warning Shutdown may endanger public health.
The American Foreign Service Association, which represents members of foreign service, has also pushed back on plans.
“Anyone does not dispute the value of strengthening and rationalizing the Foreign Department to meet today’s global challenges. But there is a right way to do it and a wrong way,” Association Said in April“The correct way is not involved to weaken and demolish the workforce. Nor does this include rhetoric that accuses our diplomats of being ineffective, lack of accountability and concern for American interests.”
The cut in the State Department has drawn pushbacks from democratic MPs, who argue the tricks May be reduced American diplomatic effort.
Many department employees have expressed alarm on changes. For Foreign Service officials, the cut-for-fors is based on whether he worked in an office affected by restructuring on May 29, one of the two senior state department officials told reporters on Thursday.
A current employee of the State Department told CBS News that there are people who were in these positions six weeks ago, but have gone into new assignments since then. “So why would you punish them for a job first that they are no longer inside?” He said. “It makes absolutely no sense.”
“We have tried to do so in an unknown functional manner with a deduction based on the department,” told reporters from the second senior department of the state.
Rubio said on Thursday, “There are some of these posts that are being abolished, not people,” Rubio said on Thursday.
The first senior department official also said, “We are going to work to handle it in this way, which, to the maximum extent, preserves the dignity of federal employees.”
Margaret Brainan contributed to this report.
