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

Department offices bought closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for massive 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government companies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and provides 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,” 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 purchased offices in the Washington area near to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against 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 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, despite lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has annoyed several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first notable public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually used workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the countless employees who have actually dedicated their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have actually argued that the federal government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just publicly documented a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The huge bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who concur 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 reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers 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 government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonus offers of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of typical U.S. organization 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)