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

Department workplaces ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to send strategies 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 manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in 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 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency ordered offices in the Washington location closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice 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 functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus dishonest lending institutions.

The layoffs are the current 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 actually cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and contracts, regardless of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually irritated numerous White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have confronted upset 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 companies have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have actually provided employees payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the thousands of workers who have actually dedicated their careers 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 inefficient and . DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only openly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who consent 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 uses, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources specialists at several federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers 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 federal government’s home portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided rewards of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second 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 preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

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

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all 19,000 employees 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 prior deal by including two months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment outside of normal U.S. organization 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)