State Department releases new ‘America First’ reorganization plan

The U.S. Department of State has released a sweeping reorganization plan, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying the changes will build an “America First State Department” that will bring the agency “into the 21st Century.” “To deliver on President Trump’s America First foreign policy, we must make the State Department Great Again,” Rubio said in a statement, which was released alongside a reorganization chart on Tuesday morning. “This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies.” This is far from the first reorganization plan centered on the State Department, which now hosts the little left of USAID. But this blueprint is starkly different from the one Rubio’s team sent to Congress late last month — featuring a shuffling of bureaus, offices, and leadership across five undersecretaries and one new, “reimagined” Office of the Coordinator of Foreign and Humanitarian Affairs. That foreign aid office would be referred to as the F Bureau, just like its predecessor. And while it would be responsible for high-level coordination, the majority of foreign aid would be channeled through regional bureaus, an internal document states — with each regional team administering and managing foreign aid themselves. “Subsuming and decentralizing the rest of USAID’s functions to the regional bureaus means we won’t have foreign assistance,” Rob Jenkins, a former senior USAID official who worked at the agency under five presidential administrations, told Devex. “We will have diplomats making deals and signing checks.” But according to the State Department, the reorganization is “distinct” and “highly complementary” to “ongoing efforts to integrate certain USAID foreign assistance programs and functions” into State, according to an internal question-and-answer document obtained by Devex. “The existing USAID Transition Working Group, led by Ambassador Howard VanVranken, will continue to lead the Department’s efforts to assume responsibility for USAID’s ongoing foreign assistance programming by July 1,” the document reads. “Today’s announcements do not change the USAID integration plan or timeline.” In the meantime, the State Department will be reduced from 734 bureaus and offices to 602 — a 17% drop, according to another internal document, which was obtained by Devex on Tuesday. Another 137 offices will be transitioned to different locations within the Department to “increase efficiency.” The Office of International Religious Freedom, for example, will soon be folded into the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Those affected by the reduction-in-force will be notified within 60 days, the question-and-answer memo states. “From a foreign assistance point of view, it is an abomination,” said Jenkins. “If you need yet another portrait of the United States pulling back from the world, and pulling back from America’s values, this is it.” The news came days after another State Department proposal circulated Washington, one that was discredited by both Rubio and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on X. While Rubio called that story — which was first reported by The New York Times — fake news, he said independent media platform The Free Press had gotten the “real exclusive” on the Department’s reorganization on Tuesday. “Today is the day,” Rubio tweeted. “Under @POTUS’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department.” This type of reorganization would likely require another notification to Congress, though Capitol Hill — which has a Republican majority in both the House and the Senate — is unlikely to block the proposed changes. What will happen to U.S. foreign aid? The new F Bureau would consist of two teams: the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom — the rebranded substitute for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor — and the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, the State Department’s existing humanitarian arm. Today, both of those bureaus exist beneath the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights — a team that will be virtually nonexistent in the latest reconfiguration. That department’s Office of Criminal Justice, which advises the U.S. government on war crimes and genocide, is nowhere on the new chart, nor is its Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, which focuses on preventing and responding to conflict. “Warfare and diplomacy are changing daily. Yet, bloat and bureaucracy keep the State Department from responding to those changes,” said Rep. Brian Mast, the top Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in a post on X. “This reorganization will make the State Department leaner and meaner and ensure every dollar and diplomat puts America First.” In an earlier reorganization plan, the offices of Global Health Security and Diplomacy and Global Food Security — both of which still exist on the latest blueprint — were slated to take on some of USAID’s programming. USAID’s remaining humanitarian work, for example, had been folded into the Office of Global Food Security; the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, for another, had been brought beneath the Office of Global Health Security. But in both cases, those teams now fall beneath the Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment — not the F Bureau. And in both cases, there’s no indication that the State Department is still planning to fold USAID’s programs into the mix. “All non-security foreign assistance will be consolidated in regional bureaus charged with implementing U.S. foreign policy in specific geographic areas,” Rubio wrote in a State Department Substack post, which was published on Tuesday. “If something concerns Africa, the bureau of African Affairs will handle it.” For many USAID staffers who spoke with Devex, that change is cause for concern. “Gone is any kind of civil society strengthening, systems strengthening, disease surveillance, disaster risk reduction, or any of the highly efficient initiatives that USAID used to have,” added another former USAID staff member, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “State/PRM does not have the staff to adequately manage and oversee even a much-reduced portfolio of USAID’s humanitarian and development work.” Several former staff members also spoke about the possibility that the Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration, or PRM, may end up taking over USAID’s humanitarian work. Tod Preston, who heads up the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network, noted that if development and humanitarian functions are folded into the new Office of Foreign Assistance — rather than under a deputy secretary or an under secretary — those programs will be further downgraded within the larger State Department hierarchy. “That, on top of the program terminations and upcoming rescissions and [fiscal year] 26 cuts, is going to pose enormous challenges,” Preston told Devex. There’s also the matter of capacity. While USAID managed $42 billion in foreign aid in 2023, the same year, PRM channeled less than $4 billion. “PRM works with a very few, very large international organizations. Writing checks,” said Jenkins. “They have no experience deploying Disaster Assistance Response Teams. They have historically had less than a couple of dozen personnel in the field. And they aren’t technical specialists.” That’s not to say PRM — and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, or DHL, which also survived the cuts — won’t change. In his Substack post, Rubio wrote a scathing criticism of both offices. In the past, he said, PRM had “funneled millions of taxpayer dollars” to organizations that pushed “mass migration around the world,” including the “invasion” of the United States’ southern border. And DHL, Rubio added, had become a “platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders,” and “to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes.” “To transfer the remaining functions of USAID to such a monstrosity of bureaus would be to undo DOGE’s work to build a more efficient and accountable government,” Rubio said. “Consequently, [these bureaus] will be placed under the new Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs charged with returning them to their original mission of advancing human rights and religious freedom, not promoting radical causes at taxpayer expense.” What’s next In an internal email sent to USAID staff, Rubio said that the reorganization would be led by Mike Rigas, “pending [his] Senate confirmation.” Trump nominated Rigas to serve as the State Department’s deputy secretary for management and resources late last year. Until Rigas comes on board, Rubio said José Cunningham — the Assistant Secretary of Administration — will serve in the interim. “Change is difficult, and I am grateful to all of you for your continued support of our mission and your service to the American people,” Rubio signed off the email, which was later obtained by Devex. It seems that this reorganization plan has taken the place of the earlier blueprint sent to Congress, one that faced stark criticism from Democratic lawmakers earlier this month. “I will be scrutinizing these proposed reforms, which must be done with close consultation with Congress and in compliance with the law,” said Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat in the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in a statement on Tuesday. “And I will hold Secretary Rubio to his pledge to appear before our Committee and engage with Congress on the future of the State Department.” This article has been updated to reflect Tod Preston’s views on how both humanitarian and development assistance — not just humanitarian assistance — may be downgraded in this new reorganization.