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

Department offices bought closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal 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 completely, as federal government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

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

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department’s dismantling, 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 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency purchased offices in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures acted 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 secures Americans versus dishonest lending institutions.

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 actually cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has irritated numerous White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced upset constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first noteworthy public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have actually used workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s need.

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 “exorbitant cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless workers who have actually 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 inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly documented a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has been afflicted 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 majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who accept 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 embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at numerous federal companies informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered perks of up to $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 workers who have actually the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed how many staff members they prepare to cut in the second phase 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 planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually used 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 react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email 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 including two 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 remark outside of normal U.S. service 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)