Overview
- The administration has ordered nearly 30 career U.S. ambassadors across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America to return to Washington.
- Ten Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter calling the recalls unprecedented and urging the president to cancel them.
- The senators say the decision pushes ambassadorial vacancies to well over 100 and risks ceding influence to China and Russia.
- A senior State Department official describes the recalls as a standard process, while AFSA says the mass action is unprecedented and that diplomats were notified by abrupt phone calls and given about 90 days to find new roles.
- Earlier workforce cuts removed more than 1,300 State Department employees, and Republicans changed Senate confirmation rules in September after alleging Democratic delays, complicating rapid replacement of vacancies.