Tillerson: State Department funding ‘simply not sustainable’

by Rebecca Savransky - 03/16/17 8:14 AM ET

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday defended President Trump’s proposal to cut funding to the State Department.

When speaking in Tokyo, Tillerson said the cuts to the department are important to fix the “historically high” budget, Reuters reported.

“Clearly the level of spending that the State Department has been undertaking, particularly in this past year, is simply not sustainable,” he said.

{mosads}”As time goes by, there will be fewer military conflicts that the U.S. will be directly engaged in.”

There will be a “comprehensive examination” of how the department is run, Tillerson said. He added he is ready to take on the challenge of cutting the department’s funding.

“I’m confident that with the input of the men and women of the State Department we are going to construct a way forward that allows us to be much more effective, much more efficient and be able to do a lot with fewer dollars,” he said.

In his first federal budget blueprint, the president called for a 28 percent reduction in the State Department’s budget.

White House budget director Mick Mulvaney conceded the State Department cut was “fairly dramatic.”