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

Department workplaces ordered shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds new 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 precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last mission,” it said in a news release, pointing to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and provides federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would cause the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “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 office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm purchased offices in the Washington area near to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the latest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world’s richest individual 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 bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has actually annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced mad constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine 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 wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued 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 vast bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses 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 used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who concur 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 Fda.

The buyout uses, combined with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at a number of federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by . The GSA could not be reached for comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires workers who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second 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 staff.

OPM itself has offered 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 Fda sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 prior offer by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment 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, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)