Report: Top State Department Officials Resign
- 7 years ago
The Washington Post is reporting that four top U.S. State Department officials resigned abruptly on Wednesday.
Several high-ranking members of the U.S. State Department resigned on Wednesday in what a Washington Post report has called “an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.”.
The media outlet has confirmed four departing officials to be Patrick Kennedy, who has been undersecretary for management for the past nine years, as well as “Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions.”
According to The Hill, it is unknown if they left voluntarily or were asked to leave by the new administration whose nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, appears to be on track for confirmation.
David Wade, Secretary of State John Kerry's chief of staff, told the Post, “It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate.”
Wade also added, “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”
However, Reuters quotes one U.S. official as saying, “This is not unusual, it's not a mass protest or a show of indignation.”
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesperson, has since issued a statement, stating, “Of the officers whose resignations were accepted, some will continue in the Foreign Service in other positions and others will retire by choice or because they have exceeded the time limits of their grade in service.”
Several high-ranking members of the U.S. State Department resigned on Wednesday in what a Washington Post report has called “an ongoing mass exodus of senior foreign service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.”.
The media outlet has confirmed four departing officials to be Patrick Kennedy, who has been undersecretary for management for the past nine years, as well as “Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions.”
According to The Hill, it is unknown if they left voluntarily or were asked to leave by the new administration whose nominee for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, appears to be on track for confirmation.
David Wade, Secretary of State John Kerry's chief of staff, told the Post, “It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate.”
Wade also added, “Department expertise in security, management, administrative and consular positions in particular are very difficult to replicate and particularly difficult to find in the private sector.”
However, Reuters quotes one U.S. official as saying, “This is not unusual, it's not a mass protest or a show of indignation.”
Mark Toner, a State Department spokesperson, has since issued a statement, stating, “Of the officers whose resignations were accepted, some will continue in the Foreign Service in other positions and others will retire by choice or because they have exceeded the time limits of their grade in service.”