Washington (AFP) – The US State Department began laying off more than 1,300 employees on Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to massively downsize the federal government workforce. A State Department official said 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 Foreign Service employees were being informed that they were being fired.
The layoffs at the department come three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out mass firings of federal workers. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump’s plans to potentially lay off tens of thousands of government employees.
The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) condemned the State Department layoffs, calling them “a catastrophic blow to our national interests.” “At a moment of great global instability — with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order — the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce,” AFSA said in a statement. “We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.”
The State Department employed over 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with around 17,700 in domestic roles. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced a major restructuring of his department at the end of April, sharing an article on social media site X that suggested plans for cuts to 15 percent of staff.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has made reducing the federal workforce one of his main priorities, pursuing drastic cuts to jobs and spending through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) previously headed by Elon Musk. The US Agency for International Development, the primary vehicle to provide US assistance around the world, was among the agencies gutted by DOGE.
According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were being informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said.
Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under Democratic former president Joe Biden, condemned the layoffs as haphazard. “For all the talk about ‘merit-based,’ they’re firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day,” Price said on X. “It’s the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce.”
Former ambassador Barbara Leaf, Biden’s top Middle East diplomat, said the move “will have terrible consequences for our ability to protect American citizens abroad, pursue and defend the national interest and our national security.” “This is not a re-org. This is a purge,” Leaf said in a post on LinkedIn.
© 2024 AFP
