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

Department workplaces purchased closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new government report on inappropriate 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 entirely, as federal government agencies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last mission,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy 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 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered offices in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly respond to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned 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 secures Americans versus unscrupulous lenders.

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

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has irritated numerous White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several firms have actually used workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the countless workers who have devoted their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

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

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The huge bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion in that fiscal year, 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 firms have provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who concur 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 provides, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at numerous federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad claims after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s home portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to . It likewise needs employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a number of companies have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second 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 staff.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal 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 outside of 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)