29sixservices

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

Department offices purchased shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for massive layoffs

(Adds new 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 on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump’s due date to send strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department’s “final objective,” it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump’s vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and provides 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 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company ordered workplaces in the Washington area near personnel from Tuesday night 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 issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures served 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 secures Americans against unethical lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s wealthiest person 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 bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, in spite of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE’s blunt-force method has annoyed a number of White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually confronted mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually used workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s demand.

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

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

“What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of employees who have committed 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 federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have provided 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 Fda.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, personnels specialists at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government’s property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a number of firms have telegraphed how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending 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 used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior deal by adding two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark beyond typical U.S. business 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)