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

Department offices purchased closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for massive 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 Education stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last objective,” it said in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing 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,” adding that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought 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 problems prompting the closures.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus deceitful lending institutions.

The layoffs are the current step 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 actually cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless employees who have actually committed 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 government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers 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 uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at numerous federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s home portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently 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 also requires employees who have accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd 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 provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all 19,000 employees announcing 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 benefit, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment outside of regular U.S. company hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)