Senate Democrats on Friday joined State Department employees in protest of the Trump administration’s decision to layoff 1,300 employees this week.
“This is not America first. This is America in retreat,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on Friday at a protest outside the department’s headquarters in Washington. “And we don’t want America retreating, do we?”
“Hell no,” the Maryland Democrat exclaimed.
A number of workers gathered outside after the department sent reduction in force (RIF) notices Friday morning to about 1,100 civil servants and 250 foreign service officers stationed in the U.S., with plans to cut its workforce further. Workers were instructed to return their government-issued belongings on Friday.
The move, which comes months after Secretary of State Marco Rubio led the department in shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has been broadly condemned by Democrats on Capitol Hill.
“There are active conflicts and humanitarian crises in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Haiti and Myanmar—to name a few. Now is the time to strengthen our diplomatic hand, not weaken it,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a statement backed by all Democrats on the committee.
Van Hollen echoed these concerns on Friday, stating the layoffs make the American public “less safe.”
“When we retreat, that helps our adversaries and it hurts our friends and allies. When we retreat, it helps the autocrats and the dictators,” he said. “And it undermines those fighting for human rights and democracy around the world.”
Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) also attended the Friday rally, describing the reduction in force as “devastating” earlier in the day.
Rubio has long maintained that efforts to reshuffle the Department are “deliberate” and focused on boosting efficiency.
“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions. Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people,” Rubio told reporters while in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
But concerns have also been raised by the American Foreign Service Association, a union that represents tens of thousands of former and current diplomats. They argued the workforce reduction would “damage our credibility abroad.”
“Diplomats are not faceless bureaucrats. They are America’s forward presence, serving in war zones, evacuating citizens, negotiating for the release of detained Americans, and steadying allies in turbulent times. Like military personnel, they move every two to three years, serving wherever America needs representation, often in dangerous and difficult places,” the union wrote.
“Their mobility is a strategic asset. Firing them based solely on their current office location discards that asset and damages our credibility abroad,” the group added.
