US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its
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Department offices ordered shut down till Thursday
Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is deadline to send prepare for massive 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 personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.
The terminations become part of the department's "last objective," it stated in a news release, alluding to Trump's vow to get rid of the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy 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 office in January.
Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought 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 immediately react to questions about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.
Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.
The layoffs are the most recent 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 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, in spite of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.
DOGE's blunt-force technique has frustrated numerous White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually challenged angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first notable public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. federal government firms have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, up the next phase of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several companies have actually used employees payments to retire early to meet Trump's demand.
Affected Education Department workers will be put on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department stated.
The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would fight the "drastic cuts."
"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless employees who have actually 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 bloated. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly documented a portion of those cost 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 vast majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The total improper payments figure was down greatly from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO said.
EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS
Other agencies have offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who agree 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 Fda.
The buyout provides, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday deadline, personnels professionals at a number of federal firms told Reuters.
The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.
The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's home portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, 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 remark beyond U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used bonus offers of up to $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 requires employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.
Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of staff members they plan 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 preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.
OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to respond.
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 need to retire by April 19.
Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous offer by adding 2 months of complete pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed remark 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)
