Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday<\/a> cleared the way for the Trump administration to resume its plans to shrink the federal workforce and reorganize agencies.<\/p>\nIn total, the department expects nearly 3,000 employees will leave as part of a major reorganization \u2014 approximately 15% of its total workforce. About 1,600 employees have already agreed to leave the agency through voluntary incentives, including both rounds of the \u201cdeferred resignation\u201d program.<\/p>\n
The American Foreign Service Association warned that these layoffs come at a time when the Foreign Service is under-resourced and stretched thin.<\/p>\n
AFSA estimates that the State Department has shed at least 20% of the Foreign Service workforce so far this year, through \u201cshuttering of institutions and forced resignations.\u201d<\/p>\n
AFSA President Tom Yazdgerdi said that prior to these cuts, the Foreign Service was already short-staffed to the point where more junior staff were taking on positions and responsibilities beyond their experience and qualifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven before this administration, we were facing a situation where there was burnout overseas. There weren\u2019t enough mid-level officers to staff our embassies,\u201d Yazdgerdi said in an interview. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of situation that this administration came into. And they, of course, wanted to cut even further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yazdgerdi said a Foreign Service officer recently promoted to become the deputy chief of mission at a post overseas was among those laid off. AFSA\u2019s incoming president, John Dinkelman, also received a RIF notice, as did all other members of the State Department\u2019s Diplomats in Residence program.<\/p>\n
]]><\/p>\n
\u201cThey say this is all merit-based. It\u2019s not. It\u2019s kind of just Russian roulette. You happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you get RIF\u2019d,\u201d Yazdgerdi said.<\/p>\n
AFSA said there were \u201cclear, institutional mechanisms available to address excess staffing, if that had been the goal,\u201d as part of the Foreign Service\u2019s \u201cup-or-out\u201d system, but that these traditional procedures weren\u2019t followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, these layoffs are untethered from merit or mission. They target diplomats not for how they\u2019ve served or the skills they have, but for where they happen to be assigned. That is not reform,\u201d AFSA wrote.<\/p>\n
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, told the workforce in an email Thursday evening that once the RIF notifications have gone out, \u201cthe Department will enter the final state of its reorganization and focus its attention on delivering results-driven diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reorganization plan will impact more than 300 bureaus and offices, and will eliminate divisions that department leaders have deemed unnecessary or duplicative.<\/p>\n
The Public Diplomacy Council of America told members in an email Thursday evening that the State Department \u201chas apparently encountered a problem with the RIF software that caps the number of emails that can be sent at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
PDCA Co-President Karl Stoltz wrote that instead of most RIF notices going out Friday morning, \u201crolling RIFs\u201d are expected throughout the day.<\/p>\n
Stoltz said that Foreign Service officers recently recommended for promotions and officials serving on promotion panels are among those who will receive RIF notices.<\/p>\n
A former State Department official familiar with the reorganization plans told Federal News Network that the workforce cuts will impact many mid-career and senior executives.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not how many, it\u2019s who is getting RIF\u2019d that is the story,\u201d the former department official said.<\/p>\n
The former State Department official said many bureau-level executives are expected to receive RIF notices,\u00a0 as part of consolidations happening under the office of the under secretary for management.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of those directors at that level are being RIF\u2019d,\u201d the former department official said. \u201cAnd these are people that have 15 years there.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the former official, about 200 non-RIF-eligible employees will be offered another position at a lower grade, with the expectation that they will voluntarily leave the department.<\/p>\n
Rigas called the RIF a \u201ctargeted reduction\u201d in the department\u2019s domestic workforce. The State Department previously told employees, in a frequently asked questions document, that the RIF to domestic offices and functions \u201cwill impact both civil and foreign service personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The department, in preparation for the layoffs, told civil service employees to upload their resumes and to \u201cconfirm and update their employment information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery effort has been made to support our colleagues who are departing, including those who opted into the Deferred Resignation Programs,\u201d Rigas said.<\/p>\n
The former State Department official said many civil service employees were eligible for voluntary separation incentive payments that were offered ahead of the RIF notices. But the department was limited in who could take the offer, because of the cost of paying out unused leave as part of employees\u2019 severance.<\/p>\n
Last year, the former official said, the State Department hit its ceiling on funds allowed for domestic workforce salaries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t hire because we had reached our ceiling, and the ceiling was dependent on how much money we\u2019d get from the government to pay for salaries. There\u2019s a real limit there,\u201d the former official said.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday that officials \u201ctook a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused,\u201d and that \u201cour plan that we notified to Congress is what we intend to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don\u2019t need those positions,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters on Thursday that the reorganization will \u201censure that the department moves at the speed of relevancy and restores the department to its roots of results-driven democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sometimes difficult, as any enterprise in America has learned, that when change is necessary \u2014 but in this case, we\u2019ve inherited a dynamic that needed reform, and we are taking and implementing reform,\u201d Bruce added.<\/p>\n
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