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

Department workplaces bought shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send strategies 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government companies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s due date to send strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “final objective,” it said in a press release, pointing to Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” including that doing so “was the president’s required.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency purchased offices in the Washington area near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly react to questions 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 aid company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump’s sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world’s richest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite dozens of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually frustrated numerous White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually challenged angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have actually provided staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump’s demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would combat the “exorbitant cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless workers who have dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans,” said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually offered lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers 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, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels experts at several federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a 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 home portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonuses of as much as $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 obstacles. It also needs employees who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within five years.

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed how many workers they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include 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 actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 employees 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 reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment outside of normal U.S. company 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)