WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday revised his proposal to overhaul the State Department to include a new undersecretary-level position to oversee foreign aid after his April proposal was panned by Democrats for downgrading the role of international assistance and human rights in the department.

In an official transmittal letter to Congress, Rubio laid out in detail his proposal to streamline Foggy Bottom, consolidating or eliminating many offices that the Trump administration views as unnecessary to U.S. foreign policy interests.

“The reorganization plan will result in a more agile Department, better equipped to promote America’s interests and keep Americans safe across the world,” Rubio said in a statement, adding that his revisions take into account feedback received from lawmakers and longtime bureau employees.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee under Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., is aiming to produce a comprehensive State Department reauthorization bill later this year, which could codify much of what Rubio has proposed. It is not clear if the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will try to mark up a similar authorization bill this year amid significant opposition from Democrats to Rubio’s plans.

The top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs committees released a joint statement Thursday criticizing Rubio for “haphazardly” moving the remainders of “once prominent foreign assistance programs to department entities with no experience dealing with such programs” and for proposing to fire thousands of national security specialists.

“We cannot ignore that the gutting of foreign assistance earlier this year occurred without Congress, with utter disregard and in violation of federal law and the Constitution,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, D-N.Y., said.

The pair said they still expect Rubio to testify before their respective committees: “We will be scrutinizing these proposed reforms, and in no way believe one notification is enough. American jobs, lives, and national security are at stake.”

Foreign aid advocacy organizations reacted with cautious approval to the addition of an undersecretary-level position to oversee foreign aid.

“Further changes are needed to avoid the continued degradation of U.S. development and humanitarian assistance capabilities in the wake of the dismantling of USAID,” said Tod Preston, executive director of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, a bipartisan coalition of development organizations.

The agency’s new reorganization chart includes an undersecretary for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs in place of the Office of the Director for Foreign Assistance and Human Rights as proposed last month.

Rubio is looking to move some functions formerly handled by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has effectively shuttered but needs congressional sign-off to become permanent, over to the new foreign assistance-focused bureau at State.

His revised plan would create an Office of Foreign Assistance Oversight director and move the Office of Global Food Security to the new bureau to ensure closer coordination on humanitarian assistance, according to the 136-page letter detailing the changes that was shared with CQ Roll Call.

Rubio’s proposal still includes many of the cuts he originally sought when he unveiled it in April. The undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights position would be eliminated and the office for Conflict and Stabilization Operations would see its statutory functions shifted to a new position: the coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization, which would also take on emergency disaster response responsibilities inherited from USAID.

The sweeping overall plan calls for the elimination of the majority of the Democracy, Human Rights and Labor bureau’s regional offices. Instead, Rubio has proposed a new deputy assistant secretary for democracy and Western values who would oversee a new Office of Natural Rights to “build the foundation for criticisms of free speech backsliding in Europe and other developed nations,” according to the congressional notification letter.

Some of the proposed changes can be implemented without congressional authorization, as they are not required by statute. But those could also be reversed by another administration. Rubio acknowledged this during testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week.

“I think the advantage of doing it statutorily is that it becomes enduring and permanent and provides certainty in the days to come,” Rubio said.

His proposal would make many changes to the International Organization Affairs Bureau, including shrinking 10 offices to seven and eliminating one of five deputy assistant secretary positions. It would create a new Office of Economic and Civil Affairs within the bureau and a new Office of Security Affairs to handle functions currently covered by bureau offices for United Nations peacekeeping operations and sanctions and counterterrorism.

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