Many if not most of the spending restrictions are about pushing politics.
If the financial restrictions are "cut everything non-essential" then this sort of makes sense. If the cuts are "this is woke science stop that" then it makes 100% sense.
Either way, blaming the State Department for this is neither reasonable nor prudent.
What costs are involved? Once set up the costs should be “an internet connection”. I assume the embassy didn’t have their internet cut off.
Sure it may require costs over time, but it reeks of “ill show them”.