The new leadership at the U.S. Department of State is moving full speed ahead on its mission to “rightsize” and reshape the department to serve its America First foreign policy vision, according to department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
“We inherited a dynamic that needed reform, and we are taking and implementing reform,” Bruce said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon.
The briefing takes place two days after the Supreme Court issued a stay on a lower court’s decision challenging the administration’s sweeping personnel and staffing cuts, allowing the administration to proceed with mass layoffs and firings for now.
This effort “restores the department to its roots of results-driven democracy,” according to Bruce.
“This is about making sure that the State Department is able to operate in a manner that makes it relevant and effective. That is what the American people want. It’s what all of us want,” she said.
The emergency stay was issued Tuesday evening in an 8-1 decision in response to a request from the administration to enforce a February executive order and memorandum attempting to reform the federal workforce.
“Because the Government is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful — and because the other factors bearing on whether to grant a stay are satisfied — we grant the application,” the justices wrote.
They added that the order does not represent an opinion from the Court on “the legality of any Agency [Reduction in Force] and Reorganization Plan produced or approved pursuant to the Executive Order and Memorandum.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
Bruce emphasized that the cuts were not to be taken as a reflection of those being laid off or terminated — calling her experience working at the State Department “life-changing” — but rather as a reflection of the structure and effectiveness of the organization as a whole.
“I do also want to make a note here as my experience at the State Department now moves into its six month [of] the remarkable experience, the life-changing experience, I’ve had getting to know the people who work in this building,” Bruce said. “In the midst of this, know that the people who have committed to the State Department and to diplomacy — that they know also — that this is not about them.”
The stay will remain in effect until the lawsuit concludes. It’s currently under review by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. If the court rules against the administration, the government will likely appeal to the Supreme Court.
