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

Department workplaces ordered shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds new government report on incorrect 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government companies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s deadline to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department’s « last objective, » it said in a news release, pointing to Trump’s vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department’s dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said « yes, » adding that doing so « was the president’s mandate. » The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company ordered workplaces in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away respond to questions about the nature of the security concerns triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against dishonest lending institutions.

The layoffs are the current step in Trump’s sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has 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 lots of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

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

All U.S. federal government agencies have been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have used workers payments to retire early to meet Trump’s need.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would fight the « extreme cuts. »

« What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the thousands of employees who have actually committed their professions to serve their fellow Americans, » said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

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

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The huge majority 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 companies have provided lump-sum payments of up to $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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday due date, personnels specialists at several federal firms told 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 basically dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used benefits of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

Only a number of agencies have telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the 2nd phase 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 provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 workers 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 previous deal by including two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed comment beyond regular U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)