US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its
Department offices purchased closed down till Thursday
Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is due date to send strategies for massive layoffs
(Adds new 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government firms scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.
The terminations are part of the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.
Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department’s dismantling, 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 workplace in January.
Before announcing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security concerns 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 firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against deceitful lending institutions.
The layoffs are the current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, despite dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.
DOGE’s blunt-force approach has frustrated several White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public move to limit the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. federal government companies have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have offered staff members 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 stated.
The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would combat the “exorbitant cuts.”
“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of employees 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 bloated. DOGE claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only openly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by mistakes.
The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The total inappropriate payments figure was down greatly from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.
EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS
Other companies have provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who consent 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 offers, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels experts at several federal firms informed Reuters.
The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.
The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s property portfolio, is also seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.
Human resources and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise needs workers who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.
Only a number of agencies have telegraphed how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, 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 employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered up until March 12 to respond.
On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline 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 complete pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment outside of regular 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)