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

Department workplaces ordered closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for large-scale 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government agencies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “final mission,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s taking apart, 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, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm purchased offices in the Washington location closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s wealthiest person 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 help and canceled countless programs and contracts, in spite of lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has irritated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have provided employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s need.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would combat the “heavy-handed cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the countless employees who have actually dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only publicly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by errors.

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

The overall incorrect payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees 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 uses, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad suits 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 handles the government’s property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to offer 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. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed how lots of staff members they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond typical 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)