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 strategies for large-scale 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government companies rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s “last objective,” it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.

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

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington area near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures acted 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 protects Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s richest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, in spite of lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually frustrated a number of White House authorities and legislators, some of whom have actually faced angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have offered workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

Affected Education Department staff members will be positioned on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department said.

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of employees who have devoted their professions 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 wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly 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 total improper payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $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 Fda.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnels specialists at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the government’s property portfolio, is likewise seeking 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 could not be grabbed comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used benefits of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within 5 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 intending 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 used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 workers 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 deal by adding two months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark outside of normal 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)