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

Department offices bought closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-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 nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s « final mission, » it said in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said « yes, » adding that doing so « was the president’s required. » The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company ordered workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately 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 company, 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 wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually annoyed several White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have faced mad constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several firms have actually provided employees payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would combat the « severe cuts. »

« What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of 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 argued that the government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $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 improper payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have used lump-sum payments of up to $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 relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at several federal companies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s home portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a couple of agencies 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 preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered 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 employees 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 deal by including two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment outside of typical U.S. organization 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)