US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its

Department offices ordered closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new government report on improper payments, paragraphs 12-14)

By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “last objective,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including that doing so “was the president’s required.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought offices in the Washington location closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away respond to questions about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unscrupulous loan providers.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has annoyed a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually faced mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government companies have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have actually offered workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department workers will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would combat the “heavy-handed cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless workers who have dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just publicly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The total incorrect payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs. Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at numerous federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise needs workers who have actually the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a number of companies have telegraphed how many employees they prepare to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all 19,000 workers revealing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior deal by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment outside of regular U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)