More than 1,000 employees of the US State Department have been laid off as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce its federal workforce.
The involuntary staff reductions included 1,107 civil service and 246 foreign service employees, according to a notice sent to State Department employees on Friday and obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.
More than 1,500 other State Department employees took voluntary departures earlier this year as part of the federal government’s massive reorganisation effort.
Critics have argued the mass cuts will affect the work the department does.
CBS News reported that nearly all civil service officers in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration’s office of admissions – a programme that resettles refugees in the US – were cut.
Individuals who worked for the State Department’s Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) office were also among the cuts.
Videos shared on social media show civil service members in the lobby of the department, leaving the building with their belongings. Other employees are seen applauding former colleagues and hugging one another.
Outside the building protesters gathered with signs that read “Thank you to Americas diplomats” and “We all deserve better”.
“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said while in Malaysia on Thursday.
“But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions. Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”
Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a statement saying the “decision to fire hundreds of members of the Civil Service and Foreign Service at the Department of State undermines our national security”.
“While there are targeted reforms that our government can pursue to maximize the impact of every tax dollar, that’s not what this is,” the senators wrote. “Blanket and indiscriminate cuts – the legacy from Elon Musk’s failed DOGE effort – weaken our government’s ability to deliver for the American people in a cost-effective manner.”
The layoffs come just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration’s plan to slash the sized of the federal workforce could move forward.
Earlier this year, in a letter notifying Congress of the department’s intention to reduce its workforce by 18% through voluntary departures and layoff, the department said it had more than 18,700 US-based employees.
The cuts to the workforce originate from a campaign promise from President Donald Trump cut government spending.
Earlier this month, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) officially closed its doors, at the directive of the Trump administration.
More than 80% of all the agency’s programmes were cancelled as of March, and on 1 July the remainder were formally absorbed by the state department.
By BBC News
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