The Bureau of Public Affairs carries out the Secretary's mandate to help Americans understand the importance of foreign affairs. The Bureau is led by Assistant Secretary Sean McCormack, who also serves as Department spokesman. Robert Wood serves as Deputy Spokesman. 

The PA Bureau vigorously pursues the State Department's mission to inform the American people and to feed their concerns and comments back to the policymakers. It accomplishes this in a variety of ways, which include:

• Strategic and tactical planning to advance the Administration's priority foreign policy goals;
• Conducting press briefings for domestic and foreign press corps;
• Pursuing media outreach, enabling Americans everywhere to hear directly from key Department officials through local, regional and national media interviews;
• Managing the State Department's web site at state.gov and developing web pages with up-to-date information about U.S. foreign policy;
• Answering questions from the public about current foreign policy issues by phone, email, or letter;
• Arranging town meetings and scheduling speakers to visit communities to discuss U.S. foreign policy and why it is important to all Americans;
• Producing and coordinating audio-visual products and services in the U.S. and abroad for the public, the press, the Secretary of State, and Department bureaus and offices;
• Preparing historical studies on U.S. diplomacy and foreign affairs matters.