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

Department offices purchased shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government companies rushed to fulfill 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 stated in a news release, alluding to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “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 office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to concerns 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 help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the current step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s richest 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 thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has irritated a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public relocate to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have actually offered staff members payments to retire early to meet 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 combat the “draconian cuts.”

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the thousands of employees 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 actually argued that the government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has 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 launched on Tuesday. The large bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who consent to leave their tasks. 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 provides, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits 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 manages the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It likewise needs employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd stage 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

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

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 have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by including two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment beyond typical U.S. organization hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)