Department offices bought closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-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 almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government companies scrambled to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department's "final mission," it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy 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, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the company ordered offices in the Washington location near to staff 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 problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against dishonest loan providers.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world's wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and contracts, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has actually annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have confronted mad constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first notable public move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several companies have offered workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's demand.

Affected Education Department staff members will be put on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would combat the "drastic cuts."

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless employees who have 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 actually argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays 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 said.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have provided lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who concur to leave their tasks. 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 alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels experts at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an email sent out 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 already offered rewards of up to $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 obstacles. It likewise requires workers who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within five years.

Only a number of companies have telegraphed the number of employees they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is intending to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were given till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all 19,000 workers revealing 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 prior offer by including two months of complete pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark beyond normal 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)