THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 29 The administration’s approach to the State Department reorganization is unlikely to work without congressional authorization and oversight. BY EVAN COOPER Evan Cooper is a research analyst at the Stimson Center where he leads a project on reimagining U.S. diplomacy. The Trump administration has taken a seemingly drastic approach to State Department reform. First, the remnants of USAID were merged into State’s regional bureaus. This was followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s sweeping reorganization, which eliminates most staffing in the Bureaus of Conflict and Stabilization Operations and Population, Refugees, and Migration; the Office of Global Partnerships; and dozens of other offices. The plan also seeks to cut at least 15 percent of State’s U.S.-based workforce through the reduction-in-force procedure and early retirements. While the attempt to shrink the size of the department is unprecedented, many of the second Trump administration’s State Department reforms are drawn from past efforts by his first administration and others, which ultimately did not stick. They risk failing again for the same reason: a consistent inability to work effectively with Congress. Both sides are at fault; administrations have not engaged Congress to codify reforms for the long term, while the modifications to State that Congress has pushed are done without buy-in from the bureaucracy. The administration’s “move fast and break things” approach to the State Department is unlikely to work if there is not congressional authorization of these changes, followed by oversight and evaluation of enacted reforms. CONGRESS The Missing Link in State Department Reform THE FUTURE OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE FOCUS
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