Marco Rubio to slash or consolidate more than 300 State Department offices

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is moving quickly on President Donald Trump’s directive to overhaul the State Department and has notified Congress of plans to eliminate or consolidate more than 300 offices.

On Thursday, Rubio notified Congress of some of the plan’s particulars. The elimination or consolidation of more than 300 department offices amounts to nearly 45% of the State Department’s stateside offices, according to a document shared with The Daily Signal by a senior State Department official.

The document outlines that these bureaus will focus on energy and technology, humanitarian affairs, internal operations, foreign assistance, strategy, and security, respectively. Some offices that have authorities spread across these domains will be broken up and absorbed by other offices within the respective bureaus. Cybersecurity and defense issues and digital freedom issues, for example, will be moved out of the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy.

Rubio released a statement after transmitting the plan to Congress. “Over the past quarter century, the domestic operations of the State Department have grown exponentially, resulting in more bureaucracy, higher costs, and fewer results for the American people,” Rubio said. “Since my first day as Secretary, I have said that this Department must move at the speed of relevancy and, in April announced a broad reorganization of the Department to better achieve that goal. Today, we took the next step in that process by notifying Congress of how we plan to do that.”

“The plan submitted to Congress was the result of thoughtful and deliberative work by senior Department leadership,” Rubio’s statement continued. “We have taken into account feedback from lawmakers, bureaus, and long-serving employees. The reorganization plan will result in a more agile Department, better equipped to promote America’s interests and keep Americans safe across the world.”

As Rubio suggests in his statement, he announced the “comprehensive reorganization plan” in April, which the secretary characterized at the time as an aggressive effort to “bring the department into the 21st Century.”

Before Rubio’s time in Foggy Bottom, the State Department had nearly 750 offices. These offices often had duplicative or overlapping authorities and responsibilities. In April’s preliminary plans, the State Department was aiming to close 132 offices and consolidate 137 more. The closure or consolidation of these offices would come with massive staffing changes as well: Rubio ordered undersecretaries and other top officials to develop plans to cut their respective staffs by 15%.

With the closure and consolidation of more than 300 offices, Rubio’s reorganization overshot its April target.

Rubio’s effort looks to right size a department that has tripled in size over the last 25 years.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]