Trump Draft Order Would Drastically Overhaul U.S. State Department

A draft of an executive order of the Trump administration proposes a drastic restructuring of the State Department that includes eliminating almost all its Africa operations and closing embassies and consulates throughout the continent, according to US officials and a copy of the document.

The draft also requires cutting offices at the headquarters of the State Department that address climate change and refugee problems, as well as democracy and conerns of human rights.

It was not clear immediately who had compiled the document or what stage of internal debates about a restructuring of the State Department that reflected. It is one of several recent documents that propose changes in the department, and internal administration conversations take place daily on possible actions.

Some of the ideas have discussed the leg among US officials in recent weeks, although it is not clear to what extent they would be adopted or how active the dress is, the authorities said.

The elements of the executive order draft could before the final review of the White House or before President Trump signs it, if he decides to do so.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote a brief comment about social networks after this article was published, calling it “false news.” There are no indications that Mr. Rubio or his main aids have signed in the document, although they have legs working on a reorganization of the State Department.

Neinder the State Department or the National Security Council of the White House responded to the requests for comments on Sunday before this article was published, including a question that asked if Trump will sign said executive order.

The purpose of the executive order is to impose “a disciplined reorganization” of the State Department and “rationalize the delivery of the mission” while cutting “waste, fraud and abuse”, according to a copy of the draft of the order obtained by the New York Times. The order says that the department is supposed to make the changes before October 1.

Some of the proposition changes described in the draft document would require a notification of the Congress and, without a doubt, will be challenged by legislators, including massive closures of diplomatic missions and offices of the headquarters, as well as a review of the diplomatic corps. The substantial parties, if the officials tried to promulgate them, would probably face demands.

On Sunday afternoon, representative Gregory Meeks in New York, the highest democrat in the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a publication on social networks: “If parts of this draft arrive at the Trump desktop, their administration is determined. Diplomacy and development capacities in the soil.”

A White House official said the same afternoon that the proposals were not true and that the White House was not consulting them.

The document begged circular among current and previous American diplomats and other officials on Saturday.

The main structural changes in the State Department would be accompanied by efforts to dismiss both professional diplomats, known as foreign service officers, as employees of the civil service, who usually work in the families of the department’s headquarters. The department would begin to put a large number of licensed workers and send termination, they said.

The draft of the executive order requires an end to the examination of the foreign service for diplomats, and establishes new hiring criteria that include “alignment with the president’s foreign policy vision.”

The draft says that the department must greatly expand its use of artificial intelligence to help write documents and to carry out “policy development and review and” operational planning. “

The reorganization of proposals would be eliminated from the regional offices that help and promulgate policy in much of the world.

On the other hand, says the draft, these functions would fall under four “body”: Eurasia Corps, composed of Europe, Russia and Central Asia; Mid-East Corps, composed of Arab nations, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan; The body of Latin America, which consists in Central America, South America and the Caribbean; and the body of Indo-Pacific, which consists of East Asia, Southeast of Asia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bután and the Maldives.

One of the most drastic changes in proposed is to eliminate the African Affairs Office, which supervises policy in Sub -Saharan Africa. It would be replaced by a much narrower envoy office for African issues that would inform the National Security Council. The office would focus on a handful of problems, including “coordinated operations against terrorism” and “strategic extraction and commerce of critical natural resources.”

The draft also said that all “unattered” embassies and consulates in sub -Saharan Africa would be closed before October 1. The diplomats would be sent to Africa in “deployments aimed at the mission,” said the document.

Canadian operations would be placed in a new US Affairs Office under the authority of Mr. Rubio, and would be administered by a “significantly reduced team,” said the Draft. The department also severely shrugged the United States embassy in Ottawa.

The department would eliminate an office that supervises democracy and human rights problems; One that manages refugees and migration; And another that works with international organizations. The lower position to the secretary that supervises the first two desks will be cut. So would the office of the Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs.

The department would also get rid of the special envoy position for the weather.

The department would establish a new senior position, the Undersecretary of the elimination of transnational threats, to supervise the counterweight policy and other issues, the memorandum draft said.

The Humanitarian Assistance Office would absorb the remains of the ELENCE for international development, which has been destroyed in the last two months by Mr. Rubio and other members of the Trump administration.

As for the staff, the memorandum said, the department needs to move from its “current disorganized and disorganized global overall rotation model to a smarter, strategic and regionally specialized global career service frames the experience.”

That means that people trying to enter the foreign service would choose the duration of the application process in which regional body wish to work.

The department would offer purchases to the Officers of the Foreign Service and the Civil Service until September 30, said the draft.

The State Department has around 80,000 employees, with 50000 or those who are local citizens abroad. Of the rest, around 14,000 are trained diplomats that rotate abroad, called officers and specialists of the foreign service, and 13,000 are members of the civil service who work mainly outside Washington.

The draft of the order also requires narrowing the Fulbright scholarships so that only master’s degree studies in national security matters are given.

And he says that the department will end its contract with the University of Howard, a historical black institution, to recruit candidates for the rangel and collect scholarships, which will end. The objective of these scholarships has been to help students of underlined groups to have the opportunity to enter the foreign service shortly after graduation.

The draft of the Executive Order is one of several internal documents that have circulated in the administration in recent days establishing changes in proposition to the State Department. Another memorandum describes a proposition cut of almost 50 percent to the agency’s budget in the next fiscal year. Another internal memorandum proposes to cut 10 embassies and 17 consulates.

Greg Jaffe Contributed reports.