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

Department offices purchased shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

(Adds new 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 government agencies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s « last mission, » it said in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in and provides federal funding 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 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company purchased offices in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest loan providers.

The layoffs are the latest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has 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, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has actually annoyed several White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first notable public relocate to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have provided employees payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department staff members 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 combat the « heavy-handed cuts. »

« What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of workers who have actually committed 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 federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a fraction of those 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 yearly report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have provided 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at a number of federal agencies told 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 essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It also requires employees who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of employees they prepare 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 planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually offered 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 Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members revealing 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 prior offer by including two months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond typical U.S. organization 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)