Rubio Announces Sweeping Reorganization of State Department

One of the agencies, the secretary of state said, ‘facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border.’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a final press conference at the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Brussels on April 4, 2025. Jacquelyn Martin/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Secretary of State Marco Rubio released a plan on Tuesday to significantly restructure the Department of State to reduce “decades of bloat.”

“In its current form, the (State) 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. “Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared ... but far from seeing a return on investment.”

An organizational chart shows Rubio’s plan on how to restructure the agency and eliminate several departments.

Rubio released a longer, separate post on Substack that singled out the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Human Rights, and Democracy, which oversees the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, among others.

That umbrella group, which is sometimes called “J Family,” will be put under the new Coordinator for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs, Rubio said.

“The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against ‘anti-woke’ leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary, and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes,” the statement said.

The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, he said, “funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to international organizations and NGOs that facilitated mass migration around the world, including the invasion on our southern border.”

Rubio also provided an update on the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, and the work carried out by the Elon Musk-run Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by saying that transferring USAID’s duties to the aforementioned offices within the State Department would effectively undo DOGE’s work.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration moved to shut down USAID’s headquarters, lay off most of its staff, and replace its director. Although lawsuits have been filed against the administration, an appeals court last month ruled that DOGE can continue to downsize the agency.

More broadly, across the State Department, “redundant offices will also be removed, and non-statutory programs misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist,” he said. “All non-security foreign assistance will be consolidated in regional bureaus charged with implementing U.S. foreign policy in specific geographic areas.”

Rubio also provided another example of what he said was a State Department office that allegedly operated in a rogue manner. The former Global Engagement Center, which was closed down this past week, had allegedly “engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of the President of the United States,” Rubio said, adding that the agency also attempted to circumvent efforts by Congress to close it.

Rubio reposted an excerpt of a Free Press article shared by its editor Bari Weiss on Tuesday that provided more details about the plan. It said, in part, that 132 offices within the department will be shut down, including ones designed to counter extremism, promote “democracy overseas,” and “prevent war crimes.”

Undersecretaries in the State Department were told to provide a plan within 30 days on how to reduce staffing within their departments by 15 percent, the Rubio-endorsed post said.

The Epoch Times contacted the State Department for comment on Tuesday.