US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its
Department offices bought shut down till Thursday
Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is deadline to send prepare for large-scale layoffs
(Adds 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government firms to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.
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The terminations become 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, imposes civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding 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 mandate." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.
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Before revealing the layoffs, the agency bought workplaces in the Washington area closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.
Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus unscrupulous loan providers.
The layoffs are the current step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the federal 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 administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.
DOGE's blunt-force approach has frustrated several White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocate to limit the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have actually provided workers payments to retire early to meet Trump's need.
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Affected Education Department employees will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.
The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would battle the "extreme cuts."
"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of workers who have dedicated their professions 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 federal government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has just openly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.
The federal government reported an approximated $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 stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The overall inappropriate payments figure was down sharply from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO said.
EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS
Other companies have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their tasks. 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 accepted as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnels experts at a number of federal agencies told Reuters.
The Trump administration has been facing myriad suits after it fired countless probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.
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The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already provided 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 likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within five years.
Only a number of companies have telegraphed how many staff members they prepare to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These consist of 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 personnel.
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OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to respond.
On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent 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 previous deal by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark outside of normal U.S. company 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)