Marco Rubio plans to cut programs, close offices in State Department overhaul

Eric Martin, Bloomberg News on Apr 22, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced plans to reorganize what he called a “bloated” State Department, vowing Tuesday to cut programs and close offices but stopping short of a proposed executive order that outlined even more drastic changes.

The top U.S. diplomat circulated a new organizational chart that would downgrade the office that oversees democracy and human rights. It would also shut offices responsible for women’s issues, global health security, and diversity and inclusion.

Rubio’s plan is in keeping with example set by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, which previously shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development and put its functions under direct control of the State Department, department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.

“In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition,” Rubio said in a statement. “Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy.”

Rubio said the plan will combine some region-specific functions, close redundant offices and cut some programs that are “misaligned with America’s core national interests.” He also channeled rhetoric used by President Donald Trump, saying the department had created a system that had become “beholden to radical political ideology.”

Bruce, the spokeswoman, said that the proposal, which could still change, is “returning the State Department to its traditional base.”

In an email to State Department staff that was seen by Bloomberg News, Rubio said the reorganization will be led by Michael Rigas, Trump’s nominee for deputy secretary of state for management and resources, once he’s confirmed.

The reorganization announced on Tuesday focuses “only on the Department’s domestic offices and will not affect any overseas embassies, posts or operations,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a subsequent email to staff seen by Bloomberg News. That didn’t appear to rule out such changes in the future.

Rubio’s proposal may come as a relief to some diplomats who had feared even more extensive changes as outlined in a proposed executive order that circulated in recent weeks. That proposal would have shut down embassies across Africa, closed the bureau that liaises with the United Nations and cut diplomatic operations in Canada, among other places.

But Eric Rubin, a retired career ambassador who also served as president of the State Department’s union and professional association, said that there may be more cuts to staffing and more changes at State beyond those announced on Tuesday.

“This is by no means the package,” Rubin predicted.

The public announcement was short on details and said only that the changes would be implemented “methodically” in coming months. But Rubio’s X account linked to a story in the Free Press that said the State Department plans to close 132 offices, a number equivalent to 17% of all department offices, including those for human rights and preventing war crimes.

The changes will result in the elimination of 700 positions, the Free Press said, citing internal documents. Under secretaries are also being asked to cut their personnel by 15%, and the department is transferring 137 offices to other areas of the agency to consolidate programs, the Free Press said.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that she welcomes reforms where needed, but that she would scrutinize the changes closely, and urged Rubio to engage with Congress about the future of the department.

Musk has engaged in a “slash-and-burn campaign targeting federal employees, terminating critical programs at State and USAID, undermining our allies and diminishing American leadership in the world,” Shaheen said.

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(With assistance from Jason Leopold.)

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