Rubio overhauling ‘bloated’ State Department in sweeping reform

The Trump administration has announced it is overhauling the State Department and shuttering more than 130 offices around the world in order to streamline operations and align the department more closely with the administration’s foreign policy objectives.

The move was announced on Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality and redundant offices will be shut down. Programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will be shuttered too, he said.

Rubio said the State Department had become bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in a new era of great power competition. 

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“Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared,” Rubio wrote. “But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy. The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”

Rubio wrote that an example of an out-of-control department is the Global Engagement Center (GEC) that he shuttered last week. 

He said the office engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of President Donald Trump. The GEC has been accused by conservatives of censoring them too and had a budget of around $61 million with 120 people on staff. 

Despite Congress voting to shutter it, the GEC simply renamed itself and continued operating as if nothing had changed, Rubio wrote. 

The shake-up announcement comes days after a New York Times report outlining a State Department overhaul via a leaked draft executive order.

Rubio’s plans announced Tuesday, which were accompanied by a State Department reorganization chart, included the shuttering of several embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa and reducing diplomatic operations in Canada.

Rubio’s plans include reducing the number of agency offices from 734 to 602, effectively closing 132 offices, a 17% reduction. Offices related to human rights and democracy promotion are among those targeted for closure.

He said activists redefined “human rights” and “democracy” to pursue their projects at the taxpayers’ expense, “even when they were in direct conflict with the goals of the Secretary, the President, and the American people.”

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He said that the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against “anti-woke” leaders around the world who transformed their hatred of Israel into policies such as arms embargoes. 

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, he said, funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world and at the southern border.

The proposed changes also include all non-security foreign assistance being consolidated in regional bureaus to ensure that every bureau and office under the State Department has a clear responsibility and mission, Rubio said. 

For instance, if something concerns Africa, the Bureau of African Affairs will handle it.

Additionally, programs not aligned with core national interests, such as certain diversity and inclusion initiatives, will be discontinued.

Rubio said the changes are necessary to deliver on Trump’s America First foreign policy and bring the State Department into the 21st century.

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Rubio’s announcement did not say whether any consulates would shut.

Separately, under secretaries at the State Department are also being instructed to present plans to reduce their U.S. personnel in individual departments by 15% within 30 days, according to a report by The Free Press, citing a senior State Department official. Rubio shared the report on X. These include six top offices employing thousands of people, the outlet reported.

“The American people deserve a State Department willing and able to advance their safety, security, and prosperity around the world, one respectful of their tax dollars and the sacred trust of government service,” Rubio wrote. “Starting this week, they will have one.”