Department offices purchased shut down till Thursday
Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is deadline to submit 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.
The terminations are part of the department's "last mission," it said in a news release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy districts.
Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in 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 workplace in January.
Before announcing the layoffs, the agency bought offices in the Washington location near to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly react to concerns about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.
Similar closures acted 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 safeguards Americans versus dishonest loan providers.
The layoffs are the current step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world's richest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs 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 relocations.
DOGE's blunt-force technique has irritated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually faced angry constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first noteworthy public move to limit the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually used employees payments to retire early to meet Trump's demand.
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 "severe cuts."
"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of workers who have devoted their careers 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 federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually only openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by mistakes.
The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The large bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The total incorrect payments figure was down dramatically from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO stated.
EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS
Other firms have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $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 provides, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to help meet the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at several federal companies told Reuters.
The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.
The General Services Administration, which handles the government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment beyond U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered bonuses of as much as $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 likewise requires workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the money if they take another federal government task within five years.
Only a couple of firms have telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.
OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were provided 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, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.
Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by including 2 months of complete pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond regular U.S. business 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)
