US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its
Department workplaces ordered closed down until Thursday
Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is due date to send strategies for massive layoffs
(Adds brand-new federal 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to fulfill President Donald Trump’s deadline to send plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.
The terminations belong to the department’s “final mission,” it said in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to eliminate the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for clingy districts.
Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated “yes,” including that doing so “was the president’s required.” 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 purchased offices in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification 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 aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against dishonest 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 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite dozens of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.
DOGE’s blunt-force method has actually frustrated numerous White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually confronted angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. federal government firms have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting campaign. 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 stated.
The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would battle the “exorbitant cuts.”
“What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the countless employees who have actually devoted their careers 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 government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.
The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The total incorrect payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.
EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS
Other firms have provided lump-sum payments of up to $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 Food and Drug Administration.
The buyout offers, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at a number of federal companies informed Reuters.
The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad suits after it fired countless in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.
The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.
Personnels and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within 5 years.
Only a number of agencies have telegraphed how lots of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd stage 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 offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered 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, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.
Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by adding two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond normal U.S. company 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)
