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

Department offices ordered shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

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

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including 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 revealing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

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

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has irritated a number of White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his very first notable public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several firms have actually offered employees payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s need.

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

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

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the thousands of employees who have devoted their careers 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 government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its has been plagued by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in improper payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The huge bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually offered lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees 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 alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include 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 provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, 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 revealing 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 two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment outside of normal U.S. business 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)