Thousands of State Department Workers Brace for Layoffs
- - - Thousands of State Department Workers Brace for Layoffs
Susan CrabtreeJune 28, 2025 at 8:24 PM
State Department employees already bracing for mass layoffs faced another blow Friday in the Supreme Courts ruling that district courts cannot issue universal injunctions against President Trumps policies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top agency officials have been gearing up to issue layoffs ahead of a self-imposed July 1 restructuring deadline, readying official "reduction in force" notices that could go out at any moment.
On the chopping block are the jobs of hundreds of Foreign Service officers currently stationed in D.C. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which designs and implements educational and professional exchange programs with other countries, is expected to be one of the hardest hit divisions with nearly 90 employees set to be fired, according to State Department sources.
The bureau facilitates visiting scholars and professional from other countries to cultivate "people-to-people ties among current and future global leaders that build enduring networks and personal relationships and promote national security and values," its website states.
While the bureau manages the long-standing Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program, first established in 1946, it also plays a role in overseeing exchange visitor visas. In May, Rubio raised concerns that Chinese exchange students pose a national security risk and announced he would "aggressively" revoke visas for Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying certain fields, such as semiconductor engineering and aerospace. The secretary also has revoked hundreds of foreign students visas as part of Trumps efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian protesters on university campuses.
Earlier this year, Rubio released a State Department reorganization plan that detailed a widescale restructuring, including slashing more than 100 offices. In a more detailed version sent to Congress, Rubio outlined plans to downsize the "bloated, bureaucratic" department that he said was "beholden to radical political ideology" by firing roughly 2,000 people. Coupled with an estimated 1,500 who voluntarily left the government this year, the staff reductions will amount to roughly 3,500 out of the departments 19,000 employees.
Until the high court intervened Friday, the State Department appeared to be holding its fire on the layoffs, abiding by a federal judges June 13 injunction ordering it not to move forward with the staff reductions.
State Department deputy press secretary Tommy Pigott said on Tuesday the agency "has no plans here at the department to violate a court order."
The Supreme Courts Friday decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc. significantly curtailed the authority of federal district courts to issue nationwide injunctions, ruling that such determinations exceed the authority granted by Congress to federal courts. The decision impacts past and future legal challenges against executive actions, including those related to federal workforce reductions.
While Trump hailed the high court ruling as a "monumental decision" that returns power to Congress and the presidency, it doesnt automatically permit the State Department to proceed with all planned workforce reductions. As of Friday afternoon, attorneys on both sides of the issue were assessing just how broadly the high courts decision could be interpreted.
Still, earlier in the week, the agency took technical steps that would allow the layoffs to move forward if and when the Supreme Court overturned the lower court injunction. Those provisions included changes to a section on "reduction in force" policies in the Foreign Affairs Manual, which covers the terms of employment for career diplomats. The changes made it easier for Rubio to fire foreign service officers assigned to the United States, versus those working abroad, without considering merit.
"The FAM hasnt been in decades and necessitates an update to allow the department to tailor its reductions and the ability for the secretary to implement the proposed changes," a senior official told RealClearPolitics.
That move sent nervous shockwaves through the agency this week. In response, the State Department stood its ground, releasing an internal memo explaining that the changes would allow it to make "foreign service reductions" among "specific offices which are duplicative, noncore or where organic efficiencies can be found."
Some employees are already seeing an end date of July 1 on their human resources files, and orders have been given for extra security, burn bags, moving boxes, carts, and even extra boxes of tissues, NBC News reported Thursday.
The union representing Foreign Service officers is one of the group of plaintiffs fighting the layoffs in court. On Wednesday the organization issued a statement demanding that the State Department abide by the court ruling and delay the layoffs.
"Sources inside the department tell us that layoffs will be announced as soon as the end of this week or early next week," Tom Yazdgerdi, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said in a statement. "Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, the department is legally barred from taking any actions outlined in its reorganization plans."
More than 60 Democratic lawmakers on Friday sent a letter to Rubio urging him to refrain from moving forward with "large-scale" layoffs within the U.S. diplomatic workforce, including an estimated 700 foreign service officers.
Led by Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat representing Northern Virginia, the lawmakers said firing so many seasoned foreign service officers would drain the diplomatic corps of critical subject area and institutional knowledge at a time of heightened tensions in the Middle East. The lawmakers also took issue with an expected targeting of D.C.-assigned foreign service officers, which usually operate in areas around the world but often rotate into Washington.
"Reporting that FSOs will effectively be penalized for their present duty domestic stations is especially concerning, and not conducive to a thoughtful, priorities-driven reorganization process that retains the best talent and recognizes the unique nature of the Foreign Service," the lawmakers argued.
Hundreds of foreign service officers - part of the 1,600 staffers who previously worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development - are already facing summer layoff deadlines. The Trump administration cut 90% of USAID foreign assistance contracts and shuttered the agency after DOGE and others produced numerous egregious examples of agencys waste, fraud, and abuse.
The lawmakers also urged Rubio to reinstate the administration of the Foreign Service officer test, which is usually offered three times a year and is well-known filter for prospective foreign service officers.
The federal judge in California who froze the planned firings was responding to Rubios decision to lay off 40 Civil Service employees who worked in a State Department office that purported to counter foreign disinformation. Rubio accused the office, the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, previously known as the Global Engagement Center, of censorship and wasting taxpayer funds.
Republicans in Congress had already shut down the GEC in December 2024 after widespread criticism from the right that it was engaged in censoring Americans and discounting conservative media. Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans countered that it played a key role in combating Russian and Chinese disinformation.
Billionaire Elon Musk, during his time leading DOGEs effort to shrink the federal government, accused the center in a 2023 X post of being the "worst offender" in U.S. government censorship and manipulation. Investigative reporter Matt Taibbi said the GEC "funded a secret list of subcontractors and helped pioneer an insidious - and idiotic - new form of blacklisting" during the pandemic.
In exposing the Twitter Files, Taibbi wrote that the GEC "flagged accounts as 'Russian personas and proxies based on criteria such as 'Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon, blaming 'research conducted at the Wuhan institute, and 'attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA."
In April, Rubio called out the GEC for spending millions of dollars "to actively silence and censor the voices of Americans they were supposed to be serving."
"This is antithetical to the very principles we should be upholding and inconceivable it was taking place in America," he added.
Susan Crabtree is RealClearPolitics' national political correspondent.
Source: AOL Politics
