The China Mail - Rubio to cut positions, rights offices at US State Department

Rubio billed the plan as a major shake-up in the State Department, long a bete noire for many US conservatives, although the outline was less drastic than several drafts that have circulated -- including one of which would have virtually wiped out day-to-day diplomacy in Africa.

"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, referring to US rivalry with China.

"The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests," he said, an allusion to right-wing criticism of US democracy and human rights promotion.

One key change will be eliminating a division -- now led by an under secretary of state, which is a senior position -- in charge of "civilian security, democracy and human rights."

It will be replaced by a new office of "coordination for foreign assistance and humanitarian affairs," which will absorb functions of the US Agency for International Development -- gutted at the start of the Trump administration with the elimination of more than 80 percent of programs.

The new office will oversee a bureau on "democracy, human rights and religious freedom" -- a shift from the current "democracy, human rights and labor," which included advocacy of workers' rights and protections overseas.

Previous administrations from both major US parties had separate envoys in charge of religious freedom, a position now being merged.

Absent under the restructuring is an office on war crimes, whose recent work has included documenting Russia's war in Ukraine.

Rubio's plan will also eliminate the Office of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, whose activities have included a task force meant to anticipate and try to prevent atrocities overseas before they happen.

Rubio reposted an article, which he billed as an exclusive, from the online outlet The Free Press that said the State Department will reduce overall offices from 734 to 602 and that under secretaries will be asked to come up with plans within 30 days to reduce personnel by 15 percent.

A senior State Department official, asked about the figures, said it sounded "correct" but that some positions may be eliminated without laying people off.

The official said the State Department leadership would speak with Congress and employees over the coming month to finalize the plan.

"There will not be stories or images of people carting their belongings out of the building today," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

K.Leung--ThChM