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

Department offices bought closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new government report on improper 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 almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government firms rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to submit strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s « final objective, » it stated in a press release, alluding to Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated « yes, » including that doing so « was the president’s mandate. » The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company purchased offices in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly respond to concerns about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the 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 bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force approach has annoyed several White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer 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 phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually provided workers payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s need.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would battle the « extreme cuts. »

« What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the thousands of employees who have committed their professions to serve their fellow Americans, » stated 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 declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only publicly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in improper 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 expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , 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 agencies have offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who concur 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 provides, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at several federal agencies told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered rewards of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs employees who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a number of firms have actually telegraphed how lots of workers 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 staff.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by adding two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for remark outside of regular U.S. company hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)