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

Department workplaces ordered closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send plans for massive layoffs

(Adds new federal government report on incorrect 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 completely, as government firms rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.

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

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm ordered offices in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react 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 protects Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest person 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 help and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has actually frustrated a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually challenged angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first noteworthy public relocate to limit the Tesla CEO.

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

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of employees who have 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 argued that the government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only publicly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels experts at numerous federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking 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 grabbed remark outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These include 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 staff.

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 till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email 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 deal by including 2 months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of typical U.S. organization 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)