The State Department eliminated an office that oversaw key components of its passport operations, as part of widespread layoffs that occurred July 11.
The Office of Planning and Program Support (PPS) — part of the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Passport Services within the Bureau of Consular Affairs — was “abolished,” according to a recently laid-off employee and the union that represents them. Nearly 25 employees working there received reduction-in-force notices last Friday.
The RIF’d employee said PPS served as the “nerve center” for the deputy assistant secretary’s office, including budget execution, contract management and strategic planning. The employee said the office’s closure “creates substantial risk” for passport services and could contribute to delays in passport processing.
PPS employees were shocked to receive RIF notices last Friday, after senior leaders repeatedly assured them their jobs were safe.
Among its duties, the office forecasted demand for passports and ensured passport agencies had the staffing and funding needed to keep up with their workload. The State Department in recent years struggled with seasonal backlogs issuing and renewing passports, but returned to pre-pandemic processing times by the end of 2023.
State Department officials have defended the layoffs of 1,350 employees, saying the reorganization was necessary to ensure the department becomes a steward of taxpayer dollars. But much of the Bureau of Consular Affairs is self-funded through passport and visa fees. Among their duties, PPS employees helped manage the bureau’s revenue surpluses and shortfalls.
Emails shared with Federal News Network show senior leaders within the Bureau of Consular Affairs advocated for RIF exemptions at PPS and thought they had secured those exemptions until staff received RIF notices on the morning of July 11.
A passport center director, in an email shared with Federal News Network, told staff last week that the elimination of PPS “impacted not just positions, but valued colleagues and friends who have contributed greatly to our mission.”
“Today was a sad, and in many ways, shocking day,” the passport center director wrote last Friday. “We did not expect this.”
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, told House and Senate committees this week that RIFs at the Bureau of Consular Affairs only targeted “administrative functions,” and not any frontline staff who process passports.
“Individuals in Consular Affairs who are processing passports and adjudicating passports, that function was not touched,” Rigas told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 16. “Other functions, which have sort of a management remit and can be combined into other offices, we did find efficiencies and economies of scale to combine management functions across the department.”
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The recently terminated PPS employee, however, said their office was “more than administrative.”
“It was the cornerstone of support, fiscal discipline, and operational resilience for passport services. Its removal undermines the department’s ability to meet its mission efficiently, especially as passport demand surges beyond pre-pandemic levels and new security challenges emerge,” the employee said.
‘They’re a big deal, and now they’re gone’
The National Federation of Federal Employees Local 1998, which represents Passport Services employees, said the State Department “repudiated its collective bargaining agreement” with the union by laying off its bargaining unit employees.
“They’re a big deal, and now they’re gone,” NFFE Local 1998 President Boyd Hinton said in an interview. “What they were doing was important to keep the engine oiled. And now there’s nobody there to keep watching the engine.”
Hinton said the State Department didn’t consult with NFFE 1998 in carrying out the RIFs. Two of the department’s other unions, the American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1534, raised similar concerns.
“We’re all reps in exile, because the department doesn’t recognize us to do representational functions,” Hinton said.
The former PPS employee said the layoffs jeopardize lockbox operations, the program that oversees the pickup of paper passport applications submitted at post offices and the dropoff at processing sites.
The employee said these cuts could lead to “operational disruptions,” and could roll back “all the bureau’s work to get processing times to where they are now.”
“Procurement delays and inconsistent supply chain coordination will result in service backlogs, longer wait times, and reduced passport processing capacity,” the employee said.
The firings also undermine back-and-forth exchanges between senior leaders who advocated for passport-related positions to be exempt, and eventually shared assurances with staff that their jobs would be safe from the upcoming RIFs.
According to emails shared with Federal News Network, John Armstrong, senior bureau official in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, told staff in a virtual meeting in late April that PPS was being considered for elimination under the reorg plans.
“As of this moment, indications are that your office will be eliminated,” Armstrong told PPS employees in a follow-up email on May 5.
Later that evening, Matthew Pierce, the deputy assistant secretary for passport services, forwarded that email and wrote, “I and others in leadership continue to point out the impacts that this outcome would have on our operations.”
Pierce, according to employees, had also requested exemptions from the governmentwide hiring freeze to fill vacancies in his office. Pierce’s office oversees domestic passport offices.
Two days later, Armstrong told staff that “the most recent indications are that the Office of Planning and Program Support will not be eliminated and will remain in the Bureau of Consular Affairs.”
“This information is a change from information that we initially received,” Armstrong wrote.
A PPS employee said staff “heard nothing” further about their positions at risk of being eliminated.
“In fact, office managers and leaders constantly reassured us by noting the hiring exemption and that leaders know how important our office is,” the employee said.
Last Friday morning, before RIF notices went out, PPS staff were once again told in a virtual meeting that they would be safe from layoffs coming later that day.
Shortly after 11a a.m., however, they all received RIF notices. Employees were given until 4 p.m. to offboard from their roles, and had network access cut off by 5 p.m.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said at Wednesday’s hearing that the State Department also fired members of the bureau’s fraud prevention office.
State Dept eliminates office that assists when diplomats die overseas
State Department RIFs also wiped out the Office of Casualty Assistance (OCA), which supports diplomats and their families in the event of a death or serious injury overseas.
The department abolished OCA as part of the reorganization and folded its operations into the Office of Employee Relations. For the first time in nearly 30 years, the department doesn’t have any experienced casualty assistance officers on the job, according to an official familiar with the cuts.
The Office of Casualty Assistance was established in 1999, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in August 1998.
OCA’s former director Kirk Leach and program specialist Tonyia Warren received RIF notices last Friday. The office’s deputy director Shannan O’Bryan accepted an early retirement offer earlier this year, and her position remains vacant.
The official said the State Department has no casualty assistance officers at a time when the department is in the middle of repatriating the body of a diplomat who was recently killed in a car accident in Mexico.
“The entire team was fired on Friday, in the midst of trying to bring back an American citizen who had died overseas. I don’t think the family thinks that that’s a good firing, Shaheen said.
Since 2007, OCA has handled 725 death cases — 270 of those coming overseas — with attendant repatriation. The office assisted victims after terrorist attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
After the 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, Leach served as the personal liaison to the family of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and oversaw casualty assistance to other victims. Leach, who has led OCA since 2007, helped search and locate more than 200 victims of terrorist attacks during his tenure.
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