The State Department reduces 3,000 jobs in the “greatest reorganization since the Cold War”

When senior officials of the State Department have decided to cut the agency in the “greatest reorganization since the Cold War”, they could not obtain a total workforce on employees – for months, they say.

“It took us three months to get a list of people who actually work in the building,” said a senior state department on Monday during a briefing at Foggy Bottom on Monday, defending the job cuts that detractors claimed to damage American diplomacy.

“They could not tell you how many people worked here,” said the official. “It is sort of scary as a taxpayer and as a civil servant to think that we do not even know how many employees we have. It is a national security agency, you know. Who are these people?”

Reorganization will result in a department with around 3,000 less employees. About half of them have taken a voluntary acquisition, and the other half received force opinions (RIF).

Rubio heads for the reorganization of the reorganization of the massive state department to be eliminated, merger more than 300 offices

Employees of the dismissed State Department draw personal effects from the lower misty building on July 11, 2025, after receiving dismissal notices within the framework of a reorganization plan for the Trump administration. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)

A handful of advisers closest to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio have evaluated more than 700 national offices within the State Department, submitting Rif’s opinions (reduction of force) to the employees of those they deemed “duplicates” or “ineffective”.

The idea, said those responsible, was to put a “maximum of 12 authorizations on any piece of paper”, which means that the documents would go through 12 approval layers instead “40, 50 clearances”.

The department had dozens of different offices dealing with human resources and when a new employee was hired, he accepted files by fax on their work with other agencies.

“It is crazy that a department that is responsible for so many critical diplomatic and national security functions, with a budget of $ 50 billion, the budget in this way,” said an official.

The investigation revealed that three separate offices dealing with sanctions, two problems of arms control.

The dismissed employees of the State Department comfort each other outside the siege of the misty bottom while the spectators applaud their service. (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images)

“Some of these regional offices within this type of functional civil freedoms, civil society, democracy, human and work, population, refugee and migration offices each had their own regional offices in addition to the campaign office, the regional, construction office,” said the manager. “Each independent office and office had its own executive director, its own HR service, its own payments. We made payments from more than 60 different offices.”

The Rubio team maintains the reduction in the reduction of non -essential bureaucratic layers while preserving front line diplomacy. A decision of the Supreme Court at the end of June reopened the door for federal mass dismissals after a lower court blocked the cuts. The legal challenges of unions remain pending, although reorganization is progressing.

Managers closed a program “Diplomats in Residence”, that they decided to be “comfortable work”.

“State employees are paid to go and go to Georgetown and in a way recruit for the external service,” said an official, “without any kind of metric or responsibility”.

They did not affect the offices of countries, those specifically focused on nations such as Iran or China, and did not draw anyone from passport or diplomatic security services. They did not make clutches at the embassies or foreign posts.

“We have touched people who do this kind of functions or places of waste and waste or places where we have found natural efficiency in the combination of two offices.”

Axes of proposal from the White House one, NATO funds and half a budget of the State Department

Rubio led the reorganization of scanning in 2025 from the American State Department which reduced 3,000 positions. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)

Critics have warned that cuts to the diplomatic corps could harm the American presence worldwide and yield the soft power in China.

“A climate change office does not correct China,” said an official return.

The ministry also closed an office which had been responsible for reinstalling Afghan refugees seeking to flee the Talliban regime and fell the population’s office, refugees and migration.

“This office did not do a job that contained in China or served the national interest,” said the official. “China has exceeded the United States in a number of these countries. I would therefore say that growth in the State Department has not coincided with the growth of results for the American taxpayer.”

In another example, an official told a Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Gulf State who complained that the The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Work under Biden Administration continued to push them to unionize foreign workers.

“It created enormous diplomatic tension with them,” said the official. “The Minister of Foreign Affairs was delighted and wanted to work with us on prosperity and shared trade agreements that do not try condescension to other countries about their internal affairs.”

However, the process sparked palpable tension within the department. The employees gathered in tears in the mist of the misty bottom to say goodbye, some displaying signs reading “diplomacy counts”.

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Signs with messages like “Resist Fasism” and “You Made A Impact” were recorded throughout the department.

A group of more than 130 former senior officials, including the former national security advisor Susan Rice, has signed an open letter expressing his concern that the deep reductions of staff could endanger the effectiveness of the United States foreign policy.

Some seized the results of a reducing state department and a foreign aid apparatus: a report of THE Atlantic noted that the Trump administration had ordered 500 tonnes of emergency food that had been bought during Biden administration as a help to distribute in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“It is A bit of a shame to see people behave this way. You are wondering in a way if they had an interest in following the president and in maintaining their oath to listen to the orders of the people, “said an official.