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

Department offices ordered shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds new 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government agencies rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last objective,” it said in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy districts.

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

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency bought offices in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security problems prompting 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 deceitful lenders.

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 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has actually annoyed several White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have challenged upset constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first notable public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have offered employees payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department employees will be placed 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 past weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the countless workers who have actually devoted their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have offered 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 uses, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used benefits of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed the number of employees 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all 19,000 workers 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 adding two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark beyond regular U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)