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

Department workplaces bought shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit plans for large-scale 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 almost half its personnel, a possible to closing altogether, as federal government companies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last mission,” it said in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights 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,” including that doing so “was the president’s required.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency purchased workplaces in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned 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 secures Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent action 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 cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually frustrated several White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have provided workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless employees who have actually dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only publicly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has been pestered by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually provided lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who agree 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal 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 staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided benefits of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed how lots of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These include 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 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members revealing 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 previous offer by adding two 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 comment beyond normal 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 Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)