Senate Democrats on Friday joined the employees of the State Department in protest against the decision of the Trump administration. Sorting 1,300 Employees this week.
“This is not the US before. It is in the US retreat,” Sen Crude Van Hollen (D-MD) on Friday said a protest outside the department’s headquarters in Washington. “And we don’t want America to retreat, are we?”
“Not hell,” said Maryland Democrat.
The department plans to cut their workforce for about 1,100 civil servants and 250 foreign service officers posted in the US on Friday morning after a decrease in the force (RIF) notice. Worker Instructions were given To return the goods issued by its government on Friday.
This step, which comes after the state secretary Marco Rubio, the department led the department Shuttering The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been Broadly condemned By Democrat on Capital Hill.
“There are active conflicts and human crisis in Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza, Haiti and Myanmar – to make some names. Now it’s time to strengthen our diplomatic hand, does not weaken it,” Sen. Jean Shaheen (DN.H.), Ranking Member of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote in a statement supported by all the Democrats of the committee.
Van Holen on Friday resonated these concerns, stating that the trimming makes the American public “less safe”.
“When we retreat, it helps our opponents and it harms our friends and colleagues. When we retreat, it helps Autocrats and Dictators,” he said. “And it weakens those fighting for human rights and democracy worldwide.”
Sen Andy Kim (DN.J.) also attended Friday rally, Description of Reduction in force as “destructive” in the first day.
Rubio has long maintained that efforts to reshuffle the department are “deliberate” and focus on increasing efficiency.
“This is not the result of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you do not need those positions. Understand that there are some of these posts that are being abolished, not people,” Rubio told reporters While in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
But concerns have also been raised by the American Foreign Service Association, an association that represents tens of thousands of east and current diplomats. He argued that the workforce decrease “will harm our credibility abroad”.
“Diplomatic is not bureaucrats. They are the forward appearance of America, serving in war areas, are emptying citizens, negotiating for the release of Americans taken into custody, and stabilizing colleagues in disturbed times. Like military personnel, they walk every two to three years, where the US needs to be represented, often dangerous and difficult places,” union.
The group said, “Their dynamics are a strategic property. They are fully firing on their current office location that is property and damages our credibility abroad,” the group said.
