Politics
These are the State Department offices hit hardest by widespread layoffs
The State Department laid off nearly 1,350 employees earlier this month, but certain bureaus and offices are feeling those cuts more than others.
A bureau-by-bureau breakdown of the department’s July 11 reduction-in-force, based on data obtained by Federal News Network, shows its human resources office, the Bureau of Global Talent Management, lost more than 150 employees, more than any other bureau.
The Bureau of Consular Affairs lost more than 100 employees in the RIF, but the State Department recently reinstated about 25 bureau employees who oversee key components of its passport operations.
The Office of Planning and Program Support (PPS) — part of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services — was briefly “abolished,” according to a reinstated employee and the union that represents these employees, but all its employees were reinstated shortly after receiving RIF notices.
Among its duties, the office forecasts demand for passports and ensures passport agencies have the staffing and funding needed to keep up with their workload. The State Department in recent years struggled with seasonal backlogs in issuing and renewing passports, but returned to pre-pandemic processing times by the end of 2023.
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, told House and Senate committees last week that RIFs at the Bureau of Consular Affairs only targeted “administrative functions,” and not any frontline staff who process passports.
“Individuals in Consular Affairs who are processing passports and adjudicating passports, that function was not touched,” Rigas told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 16. “Other functions, which have sort of a management remit and can be combined into other offices, we did find efficiencies and economies of scale to combine management functions across the department.”
Overall, a small percentage of employees who received RIF notices were terminated by accident, and have since been reinstated.
“There were very minor discrepancies, which were immediately resolved in real time by an organized and prepared State Department response team,” a senior State Department official told Federal News Network.
In a notice shared with Federal News Network, Lew Olowski, the senior bureau official in charge of the Bureau of Global Talent Management, told employees that they received a RIF notice because of an “administrative error.”
“Your position is not being abolished as part of the Department reorganization,” Olowski wrote.
The Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations, which manages the department’s international real estate portfolio, also lost nearly 100 employees.
Employees who received reduction-in-force notices left the department’s headquarters on July 11, some carrying boxes and office supplies. Staff and protestors at a rally outside applauded RIF’d employees as they walked out.
Former Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya, now president and CEO of Human Rights First, said the RIF “decimates U.S. diplomacy and it makes us less safe.”
“Rather than retaining the skills and expertise honed over decades by those who served, [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio kneecapped American human rights and humanitarian leadership in one fell swoop,” Zeya said on July 11 at a rally outside the State Department’s headquarters.
Kelly Rodriguez, a former senior diplomat who led global labor policy at the State Department under the Biden administration, said terminated employees helped fight forced child labor overseas and end unfair competition in the global economy.
“These actions weaken our economy and fragile global supply chains. They undermine our trade and national security. They jeopardize the livelihoods, rights and ability for workers to have a safe and decent job here again and around the world,” Rodriguez said.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), a former diplomat at the State Department, said RIF’d employees “deserved better than this.”
“This is no way to treat people who have served our nation. Many of them have served in harm’s way or worked in war zones, risked their lives for our country and now being treated with such disrespect,” Kim said.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the department’s layoffs weaken the U.S. diplomatic mission and “makes us less safe.”
“It hurts everyone in our country, because it diminishes our ability to advance America’s interests and America’s values around the world,” he said
The post These are the State Department offices hit hardest by widespread layoffs first appeared on Federal News Network.
