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Tillerson eyes cutting 2,300 jobs at State Department

29 April 2017 08:08 (UTC +04:00)

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is proposing to eliminate 2,300 jobs as part of a plan to cut more than a quarter of the State Department's budget for the next fiscal year, officials said Friday, APA reported citing Associated Press.

The plan will almost certainly meet resistance from lawmakers opposing President Donald Trump's proposal to shrink the size of the federal government.

Tillerson's proposal reduces the number of new diplomats being hired and includes the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development's possible consolidation, according to officials briefed on the proposal. The staff cuts would amount to about 3 percent of the department's roughly 75,000-strong workforce.

The proposal is a response to the Office of Management and Budget's call to slash the State Department and USAID budgets by 31 percent through deep cuts to foreign aid and other programs, said the officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly about the as-yet unreleased plan and requested anonymity.

Tillerson's plan would entail a 26 percent budget reduction, they said.

In an interview with NPR that aired on Friday, Tillerson said he intended to reorganize the department to make it more efficient and focused.