State Department ISN Bureau

Dave Ruppe in Global Security Newswire reports “the U.S. State Department this month quietly began implementing a major reorganization plan to eliminate its arms control and nonproliferation bureaus, despite a U.S. Senate hold on the plan…”

Congressional Staff seem bewildered that this notice appeared in the Federal Register issued by the “Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation” and signed by “Acting” Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Rademaker. Ruppe writes:

Republican and Democratic congressional offices said the move should not have been formalized and that as far as they are concerned the reorganization has not yet gone through.

“Our understanding is that it is not yet in place,” said Andy Fisher, spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and its chairman Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), who has endorsed the reorganization plan.

“It hasn’t as far as we’re concerned up here,” said Norm Kurz, spokesman for Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.), the ranking Democrat on the committee.

“There’s a hold on it, from what I understand, on the matter of how it’s going to get reorganized. There are people who want to look at what are the implications instead of just marching ahead with this and so they’re trying to slow things down,” he said.

ACW is offering a complimentary beer to the first person who can produce a scanned image of a State Department business card bearing the new organization’s name. All file formats accepted.

For more background, read State Department Reorganization Advances by Wade Boese in Arms Control Today and two ACW posts from January and February