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

Department workplaces ordered closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government companies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s « last mission, » it said in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would cause 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 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company ordered offices in the Washington location near to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the 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 bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has frustrated numerous White House officials and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced upset constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

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

Affected Education Department employees 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 fight the « draconian cuts. »

« What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless workers who have dedicated 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 wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a portion of those cost 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 annual report released on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , 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 companies have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who accept 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, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at several federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled 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 use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the money if they take another within 5 years.

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed the number of staff members they prepare 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 provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to respond.

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 have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior offer by adding two months of full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment outside of typical U.S. business 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)