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

Department workplaces bought shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds 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 altogether, as government companies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to send plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “last objective,” it said in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm purchased workplaces in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly respond to concerns about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has actually irritated a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have used workers payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of workers 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 argued that the government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees 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 provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources experts at several federal agencies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property portfolio, is likewise 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 might not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered rewards 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 vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd stage of layoffs. These consist of 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 staff.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 employees 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 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of typical U.S. service 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)