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

Department offices ordered closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

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

(Adds 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 government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would cause the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including 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 agency ordered workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

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

DOGE’s blunt-force method has irritated numerous White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have offered employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of employees who have actually 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 actually argued that the federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

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 launched on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers 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 Fda.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, human resources professionals at several federal agencies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided bonuses of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed how lots of staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of . These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 staff members announcing 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 prior offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed remark beyond 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)