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

Department offices ordered closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send strategies for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government agencies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies 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 stated “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 office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought workplaces in the Washington location closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

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

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

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

All U.S. firms have been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have offered staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would fight the “exorbitant cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of workers who have devoted 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 federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept 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 Fda.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at numerous federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also requires employees who have accepted the offer to repay the money if they take another government task within five years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These consist of 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 offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent 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 deal by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond normal U.S. business 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)