Rex Tillerson seeks to remove key climate change and Syria adviser roles in State Department shake-up

He also plans eliminate cyber issues, disabled rights, and Iran nuclear deal envoy positions

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has proposed a plan to the Senate to eliminate dozens of special envoy and adviser roles ahead of Donald Trump's planned budget cuts (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has submitted a letter to Congress to eliminate key advisory roles on climate change and Syria in an agency shake-up.

In total, he plans to get rid of at least 36 Special Envoy positions, some of which are mandated by law, according to Foreign Policy.

Mr Tillerson has written a letter to Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which he states that some of the 70 special envoy positions "have accomplished or outlived their original purpose".

He argued that in many cases, established State Department offices could handle all the duties of eliminated envoy posts.

Some of these include, but are not limited to: international labour affairs, cyber issues, disabled rights, the Iran nuclear deal, global youth issues, the Northern Ireland conflict, and the closing of Guantanamo Bay prison.

For some positions, titles will be stripped but duties will be taken on by a current employee holding another position. He referred to this as "dual-hatting".

In other cases, Mr Tillerson wrote the number of positions and total cost that will have to be "realigned" into other departments.

The State Department has not responded as yet to a request for clarification as to what exactly "realigned" means - an elimination of the duties because that particular issue is not a priority of the Trump administration, a scaling back of scope of duties and functions, or some other combination.

The Special Envoy for Climate Change, a position that is currently vacant as Donald Trump has withdrawn from the Paris Agreement, will have its title eliminated and duties folded into the Bureau of Oceans and International and Scientific Affairs. The same goes for the Arctic representative.

For the Syria adviser position, the title will be stripped but "a deputy secretary in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs" will take on performing the duties outlined, according to Mr Tillerson's proposal. That Bureau currently has an "acting" chief, Stuart Jones, because Mr Trump and Mr Tillerson have not appointed a person to the role.

The Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues position will "will continue to be an ambassador-level position confirmed by the US Senate" but will involve "realigning 28 positions" and approximately $5.3 million in operation costs within another State Department larger office, Mr Tillerson wrote.

Mr Tillerson's letter outlined the administration's priorities fairly clearly through the positions that "will be retained and continue to be organised" through its current bureau or office -advisers for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, North Korea Policy, building the anti-Islamic State military coalition, and the Special Representative for Commercial and Business Affairs.

Though Mr Trump's planned 30 per cent budget cuts for the State Department were met with heavy criticism in the foreign policy community, some think the number and scope of special envoy positions has grown to the point of being duplicative or even "undermining existing regional bureaus and divisions" that do similar work, according to Politico.

Mr Corker said in a statement that he is eager to look through Mr Tillerson's proposal for Senate approval once the new session begins the first week of September.