The Foreign Service Journal, May 2017

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MAY 2017 15 Is a State Department Reorganization in the Works? O n March 15, the Trump administra- tion released its proposed budget for 2018, with deep cuts planned for the State Department and USAID. On March 27, Steven Mufson of The Washington Post reported the open sec ret that the Trump budget has its roots in a proposal by the Heritage Foundation, “Blueprint for Balance: A Federal Budget for 2017.” Accordingly, one might reasonably expect to find a hint of what’s behind the proposed 29-percent cut at the State Department in another Heritage Foun- dation report, “How to Make the State Department More Effective at Imple- menting U.S. Foreign Policy,” publishe d in April 2016. Indeed, POLITICO sussed out as much in conversations at the State Department, according to an April 9 article written by Nahal Toosi and Andrew Restuccia. The Heritage report—written by Brett Schaefer, the Jay Kingham Fellow in Inter- national Regulatory Affairs at the Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom—states that deficiencies in influence, responsiveness and effective- ness at State are not a matter of resources but must be addressed through improved leadership, organization and clarity of mission. To reestablish clear lines of author- ity on foreign policy, the report argues, the Secretary of State must be the chief foreign policy adviser to the president and the operational role of the National Secu- rity Council must be reduced, with its responsibilities transferred to the under and assistant secretaries at State. Additional recommendations include: return the Policy Planning Staff to its original purpose or eliminate it; remove Cabinet rank from the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; curtail the use of spe- cial envoys and special representatives; ensure that all candidates for ambassado- rial appointments are qualified, accord- ing to the requirements of the Foreign Service Act of 1980; and reinforce the authority of U.S. ambassadors. A series of proposals for reorganizing the department aim to strengthen core bilateral and multilateral diplomacy. They include establishing an under secre- tary for multilateral affairs and changing the position of under secretary for politi- cal affairs to undersecretary for bilateral affairs, shifting the responsibilities of most functional bureaus to them. Also proposed is to change the name of the Bureau of Economic and Busi- ness Affairs to the Bureau for Economic Development and incorporate USAID, while restricting activities for which the U.S. Trade Representative, the Commerce Department and Treasury have primary responsibility. Other recommendations would elimi- nate the position of under secretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights and shift those responsibilities to the under secretary for multilateral affairs, integrating democracy and human rights offices into the regional bureaus; eliminate the position of deputy secretary for management and resources; and merge complementary offices and bureaus. When POLITICO reporters caught up with Schaefer in early April, he said he had talked with a range of people as he prepared the recommendations, and had THEWASHINGTONPOST Winners and losers in the Trump administration’s 2018 budget proposal.