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 strategies for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as federal government companies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings 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, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency purchased workplaces in the Washington area closed to personnel from Tuesday evening 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 concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures worked 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 protects Americans versus deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action 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 actually cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has frustrated several White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first notable public move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have actually used employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless workers who have dedicated 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 declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has been pestered by errors.

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

The total improper payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies 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 Fda.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims 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 handles the federal government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide 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 grabbed comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered rewards 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 difficulties. It likewise needs employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed how lots of staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase of . 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 planning to cut 1,029 staff.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 workers 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 deal by adding two months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of regular 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)