A top State Department official who oversaw widespread layoffs last week is defending the personnel cuts, telling lawmakers these decisions will produce a “higher quality” workforce to carry out the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda.
Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that terminating more than 1,350 employees last Friday “was the most complicated reduction in force that the federal government has ever seen.”
“Even though there were certainly people who were qualified and great patriots who were separated from service, what you can take comfort in knowing is that the people who remained actually were selected using merit systems principles, to actually have ranked as higher quality — in terms of tenure, in terms of experience, in terms of skills — to be able to carry out the mission,” Rigas told lawmakers.
Rigas said the State Department carried out the RIF “in consultation with” the Office of Personnel Management.
The complexity of the State Department’s layoffs stems from the hundreds of “competitive areas” it set up ahead of time.
Before the layoffs, the State Department set up more than 700 competitive areas for civil service employees and nearly 800 competitive areas for the Foreign Service.
Redefining competitive areas so narrowly can increase the likelihood that employees in certain functions and offices receive RIF notices.
The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees both raised concerns over the department setting such narrow parameters for layoffs, and said officials gave them little-to-no opportunity to provide feedback.
Rigas, however, said the department was “personnel-agnostic” in consolidating offices and that none of the layoffs “targeted” specific employees.
“We asked the under secretaries, ‘What are the functions that you need to carry out the mission here, and what positions do you need to do that?’ And once those positions are identified, you then take all the employees who are in that competitive area, and you basically compete against one another based on their seniority, their tenure, their skills,” Rigas said.
Rigas said the department, as part of the reorganization, eliminated offices and bureaus whose functions were no longer relevant or were “not aligned with the administration’s policy priorities.”
The reorganization will merge, eliminate, consolidate, or streamline nearly 45% of the department’s domestic offices.
Rigas said that when Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his reorganization plan in April, the department had more than 1,500 office units located in the United States.
“This is for an organization that implements foreign policy,” he said.
The reorganization plan will impact about 300 offices. Rigas said the department plans to eliminate 100 offices and consolidate another 100 offices.
“For too long, single-issue offices have mushroomed in number and influence, often distorting our foreign policy objectives to serve their parochial interests and slowing down our ability to function,” he said.
Rigas told lawmakers that before the reorganization, any foreign policy decision, statement or action had to pass through at least a dozen offices for review.
“This is no way to run a department in the modern age. We must move at the speed of relevance,” he said.
The Trump administration is calling on Congress to cut the State Department’s funding nearly in half, but House appropriators are considering less severe cuts.
The national security and State Department subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee advanced a fiscal 2026 spending bill on Tuesday that could cut State Department and related national security agency funding by 22%, compared to current spending levels.
The State Department requested a $28.5 billion budget for fiscal 2026 — about a 48% decrease compared to current spending levels.
Rigas said the budget request reflects the reorganization plan and “the important work we are doing to make the State Department a more efficient and effective organization.”
Democrats on the committee raised concerns about the State Department’s capacity to carry out its national security mission, given the personnel cuts.
Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said layoffs at the State Department have reduced its capacity to carry out arms control and interdict illegal drugs at foreign borders before they arrive in the United States.
“Those who were fired were essential to our national security. They were selfless public servants who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution,” Dean said. “I so regret the action that your department took. They negotiated key agreements for our global stability. They ensured threats do not reach our borders,” Dean said.
Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said the layoffs have “created the largest brain drain in the State Department’s modern history.”
Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-Fla.), however, said the overhaul will “give us a State Department that is efficient and accountable.”
“Secretary Rubio is not hollowing out the State Department. He is rebuilding it to win. This is about fixing a broken system. Real reform makes the State Department stronger, not weaker,” Mast said.
“We need a State Department that isn’t afraid of removing career bureaucrats who think they’re above oversight,” he added.
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