Trump administration plans 9% staffing cuts at State Department
It’s a start: The Trump administration is looking to eliminate about 9% of the workforce in the State Department.
The majority of the job cuts, about 1,700, will come through attrition, while the remaining 600 will be done via buyouts, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been publicly announced. William Inglee, a former Lockheed Martin Corp. official and policy adviser in Congress, is overseeing the budget cuts and briefed senior managers on the plan Wednesday, the people said.
The personnel cuts, which may be phased in over two years, represent the most concrete step taken by Tillerson as he seeks to reverse the expansion the department saw under former President Barack Obama’s administration and meet President Donald Trump’s demand — outlined in an executive order signed last month — to cut spending across federal agencies. A draft budget outline released in March for the year that begins Oct. 1 seeks a 28.5 percent reduction in State Department spending from fiscal 2016.
I am not fully cognizant of the history of State Department staffing, but I am willing to bet that these cuts will not reduce the staffing to levels seen prior to the Obama administration. Still, we can’t gain control of the federal government if we don’t start somewhere, and at least the Trump administration is making an effort, something neither Bush administration did.
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It’s a start: The Trump administration is looking to eliminate about 9% of the workforce in the State Department.
The majority of the job cuts, about 1,700, will come through attrition, while the remaining 600 will be done via buyouts, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been publicly announced. William Inglee, a former Lockheed Martin Corp. official and policy adviser in Congress, is overseeing the budget cuts and briefed senior managers on the plan Wednesday, the people said.
The personnel cuts, which may be phased in over two years, represent the most concrete step taken by Tillerson as he seeks to reverse the expansion the department saw under former President Barack Obama’s administration and meet President Donald Trump’s demand — outlined in an executive order signed last month — to cut spending across federal agencies. A draft budget outline released in March for the year that begins Oct. 1 seeks a 28.5 percent reduction in State Department spending from fiscal 2016.
I am not fully cognizant of the history of State Department staffing, but I am willing to bet that these cuts will not reduce the staffing to levels seen prior to the Obama administration. Still, we can’t gain control of the federal government if we don’t start somewhere, and at least the Trump administration is making an effort, something neither Bush administration did.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Here is an excellent graphic showing State Dept staffing since 1995:
http://cf.heritage.org/~/media/71e315afdee645a084bb03bf8ac34d83.ashx
DougSpace: Thank you! It appears my guess was correct, that these cuts will not even reduce the State Department’s staffing below levels seen in the last Bush administration. Thus, any reporter who quotes the whining of government employees and union officials about the Trump cuts but does not include this simple fact in their story will reveal themselves to be both a hack, and a liberal one at that.
How do I know our country under the direction of the Trump administration is going in the correct general direction?
Every Democrat / Liberal that I know is unhappy with Trump, is waiting for his impeachment. Its all “illegal” one said to me. I ask them “Did you see any of this “Illegality” when Obama was the president?”. And the most important thing that Trump accomplished? Again, denying Hillary the presidency. The horror of having a conversation about what president Hillary Clinton is up to is beyond a horror story for me.
So how do I know we are going in the general correct direction now? Everything that Trump does is counter intuitive to all Democrats sensibilities. If they were happy I would be very concerned, that would be a big negative indicator. Everything that the Democrats pushed and promoted pretty much forever is 180 degrees counter to the interests of America and Americans, so everything that Trump does 180 degrees from that is a good thing.
Trump is a disruptor of things that desperately need disrupting. If and when he becomes “normal” and manageable we will once again be politically lost. Thats how I know we are going in the general correct direction. Please president, Trump, may we have more disruption please? Thank you.
DougSpace– have you ran across any stats on the number of Obama political-appointee’s, that still remain in key positions at the State Department? I’m seeing “80%,” but haven’t readily came upon a hard number
Cotour–
How do I know, we’re still going in the wrong direct?–
Rense Priebus is chief of staff & head gatekeeper,
Ryan and his bag-men Scalliese & McCarthy run the House,
Mitch & Schumer can’t wait to borrow a trillion dollars for phony infrastructure.
Obamacare is still the law of the land and it won’t go away by itself.
Canadian soft-wood imports have been slapped with a 25% tariff. A 25% Sales tax on new home construction, thanks Donald
There will be no wall, ever.
Tax-cuts will be imaginary, the phrase “revenue-neutral” will be the tip off. (There will be no Budget Hearing’s, again.)
40 million people remain on SNAP.
30 million people continue to have free cell-phones.
90 million people are not in the labor force.
Medicaid spending continues to consume 20-30% of all State budget expenditures.
Interest rates have been essentially “zero,” for 8 years.
yadda, yadda, yadda….
Wayne.
The general direction has been changed, is it perfect? No, get over it.
Don’t be such an EFN buzz kill.
Keeping in mind that your imaginings of “perfect” has indiscriminate millions of humans incinerated as a par for the course in international relations. Lets keep of level of reason given the parameters of the situation in which we find ourselves.
They will offer Voluntary Early Retirements, with a bonus. If that doesn’t get rid of enough people, they will start involuntary layoffs. It can be done in 6 months.
Cotour,
You wrote: “How do I know our country under the direction of the Trump administration is going in the correct general direction? Every Democrat / Liberal that I know is unhappy with Trump, is waiting for his impeachment.”
This only means that a non-Democrat is in office. We are still spending too much, and Trump wants to spend and borrow even more. Bureaucrats who abuse their positions of authority for political reasons still are not punished. Obamacare is still in full force with no repeal attempt in sight. The government continues to believe that it is appropriate for it to tell us how to spend our own money. Sanctuary cities continue to scoff at US law with impunity (Kathryn Steinle is the reason that Trump became popular, and the situation that led to her murder continues). If you think that this is the correct general direction, then I ask that you rethink the direction you think we should be going in.
“And the most important thing that Trump accomplished? Again, denying Hillary the presidency.”
Any other candidate would have performed that task for you, and it would have been so much better if we had elected one that actually wanted to take us in the correct general direction. But, no. Instead, you, Cotour, stuck us with this guy who takes us farther in the Democrats’ direction and then you tell us how good that direction is.
Democrats despise anyone who does not have a “D” after their name, and it does not matter how leftist they actually are, or whether they are lifelong liberal Democrats, or whether they promise and do exactly what Democrats want, as Trump is now doing. Your measure of “correct direction” is tainted by your fallacious assumption that if Democrats do not like it, it must be good. With logic like that, you would assume that nuking New York City is the correct direction, because Democrats would complain about it. Democrats will complain about anything that Trump does.
“The general direction has been changed, is it perfect?”
Perfect? Don’t pretend that we are stupid. We are not looking for perfection, we are looking for our country back, and Trump is not moving anywhere near that direction, he continues to move in the opposite direction. That is much worse than not perfect; that is disastrous. If that kills your buzz, then you have to get over it. Trump has never been the savior that you advertised him to be, and he never will be. Others who were running in the Republican primary were far closer to good enough than the continuing liberal Democrat who continues to be unable to define conservatism or what America should be like.
Trump was such a poor candidate that he had two of his electors refuse to vote for him. This number never happened to a living Republican candidate, and faithless electors rarely happens at all to Republicans, even with the ordinary poor Republican candidates. Clinton was so much worse as a candidate that eight electors refused to vote for her; this number has never happened to a living candidate in all of US history. Clinton was such a worse candidate that any of the other Republican candidates would have beat her, and none of them would have had faithless electors.
Notice that the other Republican presidential candidates, through history, who had faithless electors were also terrible presidents, but not nearly as bad as the liberal Democrat Trump.
http://www.fairvote.org/faithless_electors
The situation in which we find ourselves is one in which you unreasonably attempt to rationalize your previous poor choice of a liberal Democrat as the Republican presidential candidate. Face it. You screwed up and screwed the rest of us. We will continue to remind you of this sad fact every time that you pretend that Trump is our savior as he continues screwing us.
Welcome to Trump’s America, the same as Obama’s America, home of the formerly free.