State Department notifies Congress of reorganization plan with bigger staff and program cuts

WASHINGTON — The State Department on Thursday notified Congress of an updated reorganization of the massive agency, proposing cuts to programs beyond what had been revealed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a steeper 18% reduction of staff in the U.S.

The planned changes, detailed in a notification letter obtained by the Associated Press, reflect the Trump administration’s push to reshape American diplomacy and scale back the size of the federal government. The restructuring has been driven in part by the need to find a new home for the remaining functions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump administration officials and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have dismantled.

The proposal includes an even higher reduction of domestic staff than the 15% initially floated in April. The department is also planning to eliminate some divisions tasked with oversight of America’s two-decade involvement in Afghanistan, including an office focused on resettling Afghan nationals who worked alongside the U.S. military.

The letter sent to Congress by the State Department notes that the reorganization will affect more than 300 bureaus and offices, saying it’s eliminating divisions it describes as doing unclear or overlapping work and that Rubio believes “effective modern diplomacy requires streamlining this bloated bureaucracy.”

The document is clear that the reorganization is also intended to eliminate programs — particularly those related to refugees and immigration, as well as human rights and democracy promotion — that the Trump administration believes have become ideologically driven in a way that is incompatible with its priorities and policies.

“These offices, which have proven themselves prone to ideological capture and radicalism, will be either eliminated, with their statutory functions realigned elsewhere in the department, or restructured to better reflect their appropriate scope and the administration’s foreign policy priorities,” the notification says.

The reorganization notes USAID’s dismantlement and the shifting of some of its work to the State Department, particularly under a vastly restructured Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. PRM, as it is known, will be responsible for U.S. international disaster relief operations that had been tasked to USAID.

Under the new plan, PRM also will shift from facilitating migration into the United States to focusing on migrants targeted for deportation and “supporting the administration’s efforts to return illegal aliens to their country of origin or legal status,” the notification said.

The bureau “will also actively facilitate the voluntary return of migrants to their country of origin or legal status,” it said.

Another office tasked with human rights issues and refugees also is being renamed and having its focus shifted to reflect an emphasis on border security issues.

The bureaus set to be cut include the Office of Global Women’s Issues and the State Department’s diversity and inclusion efforts, which have been eliminated governmentwide under Trump. The letter says the women’s issues office is being eliminated to “ensure that promoting women’s rights and empowerment is a priority across the full scope of the Department’s diplomatic engagement.”

Efforts to cut the department’s Afghan programs received immediate backlash from veterans groups and advocates who have spent the last 3½ years since the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan working to resettle and integrate Afghans into life in the U.S.

“This is not streamlining,” said Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and head of #AfghanEvac. “This is deliberate dismantling.”

CARE, which stands for the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, was created in October 2021 in the aftermath of the withdrawal. The office was designed to help Afghans, such as interpreters who aided the U.S. military, who were eligible for resettlement in the U.S. due to their work helping America during the war.

The State Department notification says its work will be “realigned” to the Afghanistan Affairs Office.

Over time, CARE was credited with streamlining visa and immigration processes that many people helping Afghans and Iraqis, who benefited from similar resettlement programs, said were overly bureaucratic, opaque and left at-risk Afghans waiting for far too long on programs specifically intended to help them.

In December, then-President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included a provision authorizing the CARE office for three years, but since President Donald Trump took office, concerns have cast a cloud over the office’s future.

“Eliminating it — without public explanation, transition planning, or reaffirmation of mission — is a profound betrayal of American values and promises,” VanDiver added.

Amiri, Lee and Santana write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from New York.