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

Department workplaces bought closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit strategies 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 almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government companies rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a news release, alluding to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including 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 firm bought workplaces in the Washington area near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly react to concerns about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest 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 cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has irritated a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first significant public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department staff members will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless employees who have devoted their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

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 vast bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels specialists at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently offered benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed how numerous workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, due date 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 complete pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of typical U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)