The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—The newly sworn-in Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day at the job pledged to make the agency the “centerpiece” of foreign policy making. In a speech to department employees, Rubio said he wants the agency to be “relevant.” From the congressional side, he said he has watched the Department of State “sort of relegated to a secondary role because some other agency can move faster or seems to be bolder or more creative.” “It's not your fault, but we're going to change that,” he said. “We want to be at the centerpiece. We want to be at the core of how we formulate foreign policy, because we're going to have the best ideas of any agency, and because we're going to execute it better and faster and more effectively than any other agency in our government.” He added that there’s no other agency in the U.S. government he’d rather lead “because of the talent that's collected here in this room and those watching around the world.” As in his confirmation hearing, Rubio emphasized that the agency’s core mission is to advance U.S. national interest.