16 JULY-AUGUST 2025 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL TALKING POINTS State Department Unveils Reorganization Plan On May 29, the State Department submitted its proposed reorganization plan to Congress through a congressional notification. The plan involves the largest realignment of departmental resources in recent years; approximately 300 bureaus and offices will be consolidated, streamlined, or eliminated, to “more closely align resources with core U.S. national security and foreign policy objectives” and to integrate programs formerly handled by USAID. The ambitious timeline aims to complete the reorganization by July 1, with affected employees receiving notice by that date. According to the congressional notification, some 1,873 employees, in addition to 1,575 who have already retired this year, will be subject to reductions in force (RIFs). Among the key changes: Each of the regional bureaus will be creating an Office of Assistance to coordinate aid programs in the absence of USAID. In the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs (SCA), the CARE office (handling Afghan refugees) and the Special Representative for Afghan Reconstruction will be folded into the Afghanistan Affairs Office. Departmental budgeting, personnel, and asset management tasks will be consolidated into the M Bureau, where a new Bureau of Personnel and Training (PERT) will include the former Global Talent Management as well as the Foreign Service Institute, with the latter returning to its former name: the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center. A new F under secretary will be responsible for foreign assistance coordination as well as some functions formerly a part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, the International Religious Freedom Office, and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Finally, the Bureau of Energy Resources will return to the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, where it will join the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy. Secretary Rubio on the Hill Secretary of State Marco Rubio spent about 10 hours on the Hill testifying before four Senate and House committees May 20 and 21 to discuss his proposed reorganization of the State Department and the president’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. Republican members of Congress largely praised the Secretary, while exchanges with Democrats were generally more contentious, especially on foreign assistance. The first day, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) and then before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, Secretary Rubio described his view of U.S. engagement in the world. He noted that it “isn’t about saving money; it is about ensuring that we are delivering to our people what they deserve: a foreign policy that makes America stronger, safer, and more prosperous.” “We’re going to be doing foreign aid,” Rubio said. “We’re going to be doing all the things we’ve done before. … The difference is it’s going to be coordinated out of the umbrella of the State Department, and it’s going to be part of a cohesive, coherent foreign policy, and it’s going to be driven by our embassies and our regional bureaus.” He said that of streamlining the bureaucracy, “we need to be nimble enough to make a decision, but we also have to make sure that these decisions are being made as close to the front lines as possible. What is the front line of diplomacy? It is our embassies. It is the men and women who are deployed abroad on the ground. ... And so that’s our number one goal. The number two goal is to have … all the tools of foreign policy in the same toolbox. Foreign aid is a tool of our foreign policy. … It has to be taken in conjunction with all of these other things that we do, and they have to be intertwined.” He referred to the department as a “soft power entity” in response to a question from Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), explaining: “It’s a department of peace. The department of war is the Department of Defense. Our job is to try to prevent [wars].” Watch the morning session at https://bit.ly/FY26Morning and the afternoon session at https://bit.ly/ FY26Afternoon. On May 21, Rubio returned to the Hill, spending the afternoon testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on “FY26 State Department Posture: Protecting American Interests.” In opening remarks, Representative Brian Mast (R-Fla.) said he looked forward to working with the Secretary to make sure that “every single dollar and diplomat that we authorize and send into the field puts America first.” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) asked how Rubio plans to ensure “that the future of foreign assistance funding decisions are aligned with the president and are not co-opted or watered down by entrenched Foreign Service bureaucrats.” The Secretary said: “I want to be fair here. I have found ... the professional Foreign Service officers ... to be very competent, professional, wanting to deliver
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