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

Department workplaces purchased closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last mission,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.

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

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency bought offices in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the most current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize 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 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually annoyed numerous White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department employees will be positioned on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 stated it would fight the “draconian cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the countless workers who have actually devoted their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree 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 fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at several federal companies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail 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. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed how numerous staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 employees revealing 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 previous offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond normal U.S. business 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)