by Humerya Pamuk at Reuters
WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. State Department is preparing to shut down almost a dozen consulates that are mainly in Western Europe in the coming months and is looking to reduce its workforce globally, multiple U.S. officials said on Thursday.
The State Department is also looking into potentially merging a number of its expert bureaus at its headquarters in Washington that are working in areas such as human rights, refugees, global criminal justice, women’s issues and efforts to counter human trafficking, the officials said.
Reuters reported last month that U.S. missions around the world had been asked to look into reducing both American and locally employed staff by at least 10% as Trump and billionaire Elon Musk unleash an unprecedented cost-cutting effort across the U.S. federal workforce.
The Republican president wants to ensure his bureaucracy is fully aligned with his “America First” agenda. Last month he issued an executive order to revamp the U.S. foreign service to ensure “faithful and effective” implementation of his foreign policy agenda.
During his electoral campaign,…
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