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

Department workplaces bought shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit strategies for large-scale 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 nearly half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms rushed to meet President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department’s “last mission,” it stated in a news release, alluding to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda said “yes,” including 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 firm purchased workplaces in the Washington area near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

Similar closures served 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 safeguards Americans against unethical lending institutions.

The layoffs are the newest step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the federal 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 countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE’s blunt-force technique has actually irritated several White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually faced angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first significant public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually provided staff members payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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 fight the “drastic cuts.”

“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the countless employees who have dedicated their professions to serve their fellow Americans,” stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just openly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has been plagued by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have provided lump-sum payments of up to $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 Fda.

The buyout offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s home portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used perks of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also requires workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of firms have actually telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 including two months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark outside of typical U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)