The State Department has fired about 60 contractors who work for its democracy, human rights and labor bureau, a division whose programs have often been criticized by authoritarian leaders, according to two U.S. officials and two former officials.
The dismissals deal a severe blow to the bureau, because the contractors were mostly technical or area experts whom senior officials relied on to do the day-to-day work of enacting the programs overseas.
The bureau has received about $150 million to $200 million of annual budget funding from Congress in recent years. But the bureau also handles and passes on money that Congress appropriates for other groups, including the National Endowment for Democracy.
Besides the contractors, the bureau has about 200 full-time staff employees. They mainly work out of Washington, where the programs are run from the State Department’s headquarters.
The bureau’s programs have often been focused on building up civil society and democratic practices in countries where the United States does not have missions and formal diplomatic ties, or where relations with an authoritarian government are especially tense. This includes Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.
President Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 that has suspended any money or programs that can be deemed to be foreign aid or assistance.
Some of the bureau’s contractors have specific technical expertise. For example, at least one is an expert on virtual private networks, software that allows users to get around government internet blocks. China has the most effective internet censorship program in the world, called the Great Firewall.
The bureau has also worked on enacting policies aimed at pressuring China to relent on its forced labor of Uyghur Muslims, including the imposing of sanctions on U.S. companies that buy products that can be traced back to some form of forced labor.
Some Republican politicians have criticized the bureau in recent years, saying its democracy-promotion programs often end up supporting political parties or groups abroad that are opposed to conservative or far-right political figures in those countries.
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has long been a champion of policies that advance human rights and promote democratic practices. In the Senate, where he represented Florida, Mr. Rubio was a lead sponsor of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which had broad support from both parties in Congress. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed it into law in December 2021.
The State Department had no immediate comment when asked about the firings.
Foreign leaders who have criticized the bureau include Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who has tried to suppress democratic practices in his country over many years. Mr. Orban is a favorite politician of conservative and far-right groups and politicians in the United States. Last December, he met with Mr. Trump and Elon Musk, the billionaire technology businessman who advises the president, at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s home in Florida.
The firing of the contractors is similar to the drastic steps taken in recent days by the Trump administration, and by Mr. Musk in particular, to sharply reduce the work force of the United States Agency for International Development. Last week, the administration placed 60 senior officials from the agency on paid leave and issued orders that led to the firing of hundreds of contractors. Since then, administration officials have fired dozens more employees or put them on paid leave.
Karoun Demirjian contributed reporting.