Among the roughly 1,350 workers laid off at the State Department last week were senior analysts in the bureau of intelligence, including people who specialize in Russia and Ukraine, according to several current and former U.S. officials.
The firings mean a loss of expertise as President Trump renews his efforts to settle the war between Russia and Ukraine, one of his top foreign policy goals. On Monday, Mr. Trump announced a new plan to send arms to Ukraine and threatened harsh economic penalties against Russia unless it agreed to a cease-fire.
The layoffs were among several at the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, commonly known as INR. The bureau employs no spies and does not conduct surveillance of its own, but provides analysis about world events to help guide U.S. diplomacy.
It is unclear how many intelligence analysts were dismissed on Friday, and the bureau still retains workers who will focus on Russia and Ukraine after the merger of two offices within INR. Ellen McCarthy, a former State Department official who led the bureau for two years during Mr. Trump’s first term, said that paring jobs from it was “shortsighted.”
“This isn’t just about jobs, it’s about weakening a critical capability at exactly the wrong time,” Ms. McCarthy wrote in a post on LinkedIn. “The world is more complex, more volatile, and more interconnected than ever.” She added: “We should be investing in INR, not shrinking it.”
Workers across the State Department were notified on Friday that their jobs had been terminated as part of a reorganization plan crafted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The plan, which Mr. Rubio has characterized as a streamlining to reduce bloat, inertia and “radical ideology,” will close and consolidate hundreds of offices in the United States. The announced cuts do not affect overseas operation and staffing.
Few if any of the employees who have lost their jobs will have an opportunity to apply for other jobs within the State Department.
The department has not provided a specific rationale for reorganizing its intelligence branch. Asked for comment, a department spokesperson said in a statement that the changes would make for a streamlined, more efficient and nimbler bureau without compromising its core functions, and that any assertions to the contrary were “baseless political attacks.”
INR is known for employing experts with particular depth of knowledge, and for a willingness to challenge consensus.
As the United States debated invading Iraq in 2002, for instance, INR dissented from a National Intelligence Estimate that asserted that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. That dissent proved accurate.
Ms. McCarthy said the bureau was one of the smallest but most trusted arms of the U.S. intelligence community, known for its “deep expertise, non-politicized analysis, and long institutional memory.”
The State Department would not say how many employees the bureau has, but Ms. McCarthy said that its staff numbered fewer than 300 when she took charge of it in 2019 — a fraction of other intelligence agencies. She added that, unlike its counterparts, INR’s budget “has effectively decreased while the complexity of global affairs has skyrocketed.”
According to a notice that Mr. Rubio sent to Congress, his reorganization will close or consolidate several offices within INR. The bureau’s offices of analysis for Europe and for Russia and Eurasia will merge into a new office of analysis for Europe and Russia, the document said.
The layoffs and reorganization plan are the subject of two hearings in Congress this week, one before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday and the other before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled for Wednesday morning.
At Tuesday’s House hearing, Democrats fumed over Mr. Rubio’s layoffs. Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, said in opening remarks that Mr. Rubio had been “gutting the very institutions we are relying on to confront” global threats like competition with China and Russian aggression.
Another committee Democrat, Representative William Keating of Massachusetts, grilled Michael J. Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management and resources about the closure of other offices that he said were essential.
“Why did you fire the entire team investigating war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine?” Mr. Keating asked. “Why were those people fired?”
Mr. Rigas responded that the war crimes office had been “consolidated” and that its work would be conducted by officials responsible for the region.
“For too long single-issue offices have mushroomed in number and influence, often distorting our foreign policy objectives to serve their specific interests, slowing down the department’s ability to function,” Mr. Rigas said in his opening remarks.
Megan Mineiro contributed reporting from Washington.
Michael Crowley covers the State Department and U.S. foreign policy for The Times. He has reported from nearly three dozen countries and often travels with the secretary of state.
Greg Jaffe covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military.
Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades.
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