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

Department workplaces purchased closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds new federal 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government agencies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last objective,” it stated in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in 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 with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company ordered offices in the Washington location near personnel from Tuesday evening 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 prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus deceitful lending institutions.

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

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has frustrated several White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first significant public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department employees 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 “draconian cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless workers 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 actually argued that the federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $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 provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, 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 actually already used bonuses 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 susceptible to legal obstacles. It also needs employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed the number of employees 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 planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, 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 out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members announcing 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 previous deal by including two months of complete pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment beyond typical U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)