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

Department offices ordered closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds new federal 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government agencies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department’s dismantling, 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 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company ordered 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 respond to questions about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures served 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 safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

The layoffs are the newest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, in spite of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has annoyed a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government companies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have offered staff members payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of workers 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 argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just openly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments 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 said.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually 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 offers, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels experts at several federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all 19,000 workers 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 including 2 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 outside of 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)