Secretary Of State Marco Rubio Announces Plan To Make Huge Cuts To State Department

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio proposed a dramatic overhaul of the U.S. State Department, including eliminating most Africa-focused operations, slashing offices addressing climate change and human rights, and shuttering numerous embassies and consulates abroad.

The proposed restructuring would dismantle the Bureau of African Affairs, replacing it with a smaller envoy office reporting directly to the National Security Council. The new office would focus narrowly on counter-terrorism and resource extraction. Nearly all “nonessential” diplomatic missions in sub-Saharan Africa would close by October 1, and remaining diplomats would be deployed for short, targeted missions.

Rubio recently announced the cancellation of 83% of USAID’s foreign contracts.

The proposal would eliminate key State Department bureaus focused on democracy, refugees and international organizations. It also ends the foreign service exam, replacing it with a selection process based on “alignment with the president’s foreign policy vision.” Recruitment efforts, such as the Pickering and Rangel fellowships, which have brought underrepresented groups into the diplomatic sphere, would be terminated, as would the department’s contract with Howard University. The memo also calls for narrowing Fulbright scholarships to only national security master’s programs and proposes cuts to the U.S. embassy in Canada.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-New York) criticized the draft, warning it reflects an agenda to “gut” the State Department.

If enacted, the changes would mark one of the most sweeping reorganizations of the State Department in modern history, with significant implications for U.S. diplomacy, particularly in Africa and on global human rights and climate policy.

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Article by Evelyn Qiu