Overview

• More than 1,300 civil and foreign service employees received email notices Friday and will enter 90–120 days of administrative leave before final dismissal
• Up to 3,000 positions, roughly 15% of the State Department’s 18,000-strong workforce, are slated for elimination under the reorganization plan
• Non-essential and duplicate functions handling human rights, democracy, refugees and war-crimes will move into regional bureaus to centralize operations
• This initial phase followed the Supreme Court’s lifting of a lower-court injunction, allowing implementation of President Trump’s executive order
• The American Foreign Service Association warns that cutting career diplomats will weaken the United States’ ability to manage crises in Ukraine, Gaza and the broader Middle East