Rubio, DOGE reportedly plan to eliminate 132 State Department offices, 700 jobs

The State Department will reportedly close 132 offices and eliminate 700 jobs as part of a restructuring and reorganization effort.

The reported closures would equal about 17% of the agency. Officials told the Free Press that it is the biggest shake-up at the department "in decades." 

In the effort led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with the help of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency, agency undersecretaries have been instructed to reduce their personnel by 15% within 30 days. 

On Tuesday, 12 top agency officials were briefed on the plans, and a letter was sent to Congress informing lawmakers of the upcoming changes, according to the Free Press. 

"In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition," Rubio told The Free Press. "That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department into the 21st Century." 

In addition to eliminating the offices and jobs, another 137 offices are slated for consolidation and will be transferred to a single location. 

A senior official in the department told The Free Press that the programs being cut are not those that require congressional approval.

"This approach will empower the department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies," Rubio said. "Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist."