State Dept of US unveils overhaul plan

WASHINGTON — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced a comprehensive plan to reorganize the US State Department, aiming to deliver on US President Donald Trump's "America First" foreign policy.

Rubio said in a statement that "we are facing tremendous challenges across the globe" and "in its current form, the department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition".

"Over the past 15 years, the Department's footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy. The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests," Rubio noted.