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

Department offices ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as federal government companies rushed to Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing for clingy districts.

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

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite lots of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has annoyed numerous White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have provided staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would battle the “oppressive cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of workers who have actually devoted their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

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

The overall improper payments figure was down dramatically from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who accept leave their tasks. Among these are the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services, including its Fda.

The buyout provides, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided bonuses of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also requires employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within five years.

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 workers revealing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark beyond regular U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)