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State Department eliminated 1,353 positions in reorganization RIF, including its entire Consular Affairs evacuation team

On July 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of State carried out a reduction-in-force eliminating 1,353 positions as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's departmental reorganization, restructuring more than 300 bureaus and offices. The cuts eliminated the Bureau of Consular Affairs' entire rapid-response crisis-evacuation team, 102 cleared personnel trained to manage American evacuations abroad.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On July 11, 2025, the U.S. Department of State carried out a reduction-in-force eliminating 1,353 positions — 1,107 civil service employees and 246 domestically assigned Foreign Service officers — as part of Secretary of State Marco Rubio's departmental reorganization plan, announced in April 2025 and finalized on May 29, 2025, restructuring more than 300 bureaus and offices. The RIF followed the Supreme Court's July 8, 2025 stay of a district-court injunction in OPM v. AFGE that had blocked DOGE-directed workforce reductions at 22 federal agencies pending litigation.

Among the offices eliminated were the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the Bureau of International Organization Affairs. Later reporting established that the cuts also eliminated the Bureau of Consular Affairs' entire rapid-response and crisis-evacuation team — 102 personnel who held Top Secret clearances and crisis-management expertise dedicated to evacuating and protecting Americans abroad during emergencies. The department characterized the reorganization as addressing "non-core functions" and aligning the agency's size with its foreign-policy priorities.

Updates

2026-04-12 — 250 State Dept. officers told Congress the RIF eliminated evacuation capacity [4]

Nearly 250 Foreign Service officers laid off in the July 11, 2025 RIF sent lawmakers a letter warning the department could not effectively assist Americans stranded in the Middle East during the U.S.-Iran conflict, saying the eliminated Consular Affairs evacuation team left the department unable to safeguard as many as 1 million Americans in the war zone. Several affected officers, still technically on payroll under RIF notice, said they offered to return to service but were told there were no opportunities to volunteer for the Middle East Consular Task Force. The State Department said the RIFs had no negative impact on its ability to respond to developments in the Middle East.

2026-05-05 — State Dept. finalized RIF separations for ~250 Foreign Service officers [5]

On May 5, 2026, the State Department finalized the separation of more than 200 Foreign Service officers under the July 2025 RIF, notifying roughly 250 Foreign Service employees and about 30 civil-service employees that they were officially separated after nearly a year on paid administrative leave under RIF notice — the same cohort the Bureau of Consular Affairs' eliminated evacuation team had come from. The finalization followed a federal judge's December 2025 preliminary injunction that had temporarily blocked a shutdown-period version of the terminations; the administration later determined the injunction did not require permanently rescinding the original July notices. The American Foreign Service Association said the department "has never adequately explained why it is removing experienced Foreign Service professionals with critical skills while simultaneously hiring new personnel," noting some of those separated held skills relevant to the ongoing response to the Iran conflict.

Why we recorded this

A foreign ministry's capacity to protect and evacuate citizens abroad in a crisis is a core, non-negotiable government function. Eliminating the State Department's entire dedicated rapid-response evacuation team as part of a broader reorganization strips that function from the agency without any replacement plan, leaving Americans in crisis zones dependent on staff who no longer have the training or capacity the eliminated unit provided. Recording this documents how a reorganization framed as bureaucratic streamlining removed a specific, mission-critical capability the government relies on to protect its own citizens overseas.

Sources

  1. State Department lays off 1,350 employees — Government Executive primary accessed July 20, 2026
  2. Days after Supreme Court go-ahead, State Department fires over 1,300 employees — Fortune primary accessed July 20, 2026
  3. State Dept lays off 1,350 employees as reorganization nears final phase — Federal News Network secondary accessed July 20, 2026
  4. DOGE Cuts Left U.S. Unable to Help Americans Stranded in Iran War Zone — The Intercept investigative accessed July 20, 2026
  5. AFSA Statement on State Department Reductions in Force — American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) primary accessed July 20, 2026
  6. Amid hiring push, State Dept finalizes hundreds of layoffs initiated last summer — Federal News Network secondary accessed July 20, 2026

See also