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U.S. NEWSSaturday 29 April 2017
Tillerson eyes cutting 2,300 jobs at State Department
MATTHEW LEE United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, right, introduces U.S. Secretary of State Rex leased plan and requested
AP Diplomatic Writer Tillerson, center, to members of his staff as they arrive for a meeting, Friday, April 28, 2017, at anonymity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sec- United Nations headquarters. Tillerson’s plan would entail
retary of State Rex Tillerson a 26 percent budget re-
is proposing to eliminate (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) duction, they said.
2,300 jobs as part of a plan In an interview with NPR
to cut more than a quarter that aired Friday, Tillerson
of the State Department’s said he intended to reor-
budget for the next fiscal ganize the department to
year, officials said Friday. make it more efficient and
The plan will almost cer- focused. “What we really
tainly meet resistance from want to do is examine the
lawmakers opposing Presi- process by which the men
dent Donald Trump’s pro- and women — the career
posal to shrink the size of foreign service people, the
the federal government. civil servants, our embas-
Tillerson’s proposal reduces sies — how they deliver on
the number of new dip- that mission,” he said.
lomats being hired and “We want to hear from
includes the State Depart- them, we’re just about to
ment and U.S. Agency embark on a department-
for International Develop- wide listening mission,” he
ment’s possible consoli- said, adding later: “I look
dation, according to of- forward to hearing their
ficials briefed on the pro- ideas. Because I know
posal. The staff cuts would there’s going to be oppor-
tunities to allow them to
amount to about 3 per- be more effective. Now,
out of that we’ll determine
cent of the department’s what the State Depart-
ment looks like.”
roughly 75,000-strong Cutting more than a quar-
ter of State Department’s
workforce. current $50.1 billion budget
would require dramatic re-
The proposal is a response ductions in programs and
staffing, cuts that many in
to the Office of Manage- Congress and elsewhere
oppose. Tillerson’s pro-
ment and Budget’s call posal includes 700 job cuts
through buyouts and 1,600
to slash the State Depart- from attrition. q
ment and USAID budgets
by 31 percent through
deep cuts to foreign aid
and other programs, said
the officials, who weren’t
authorized to speak pub-
licly about the as-yet unre-
Warren, Sanders unhappy over
Wall Street-paid Obama speech
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. ests.”
Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders’ distrust of politi-
Bernie Sanders are not cians receiving what he
happy about reports that considers exorbitant pay-
former President Barack checks for speaking to
Obama will be paid major investment banks is
$400,000 to speak at a Sep- well known. He relentlessly
tember health care confer- criticized former rival Hillary
ence put on by the Wall Clinton for her speeches to
Street firm Cantor Fitzger- Goldman Sachs when they
ald. were vying for the Demo-
Warren said Thursday on cratic Party’s nomination
SiriusXM’s “Alter Family last year.
Politics” program that she Obama spokesman Eric
is concerned about the Schultz said in a statement
overall influence of money that the Democratic former
in politics. president accepted the in-
Sanders, a fierce Wall vitation to speak because
Street critic, told “CBS This health care is “an issue of
Morning” he finds it unfortu- great importance to him.”
nate that Obama took on He added that Obama
the engagement at a time implemented financial re-
when “people are frustrat- forms even after taking
ed with the power of Wall money from Wall Street as
Street and big-money inter- a candidate in 2008.q
