Department workplaces bought shut down until Thursday
Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement
Thursday is due date to send strategies 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 completely, as federal government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump's deadline to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.
The terminations belong to the department's "final objective," it said in a news release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts.
Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department's taking apart, 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 workers, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.
Before announcing the layoffs, the company purchased workplaces in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.
Similar closures acted 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 protects Americans versus deceitful lenders.
The layoffs are the in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world's richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.
DOGE's blunt-force technique has irritated a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public move to limit the Tesla CEO.
All U.S. government companies have been purchased to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several firms have offered staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's demand.
Affected Education Department workers will be put on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department said.
The union representing more than 2,800 department workers stated it would combat the "drastic cuts."
"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of workers who have committed their professions 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 government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has only openly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.
The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in improper payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The large bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The total improper payments figure was down greatly 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 agree 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 Food and Drug Administration.
The buyout uses, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, personnels specialists at numerous federal firms told Reuters.
The Trump administration has actually been grappling with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very 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 also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already used perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.
Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs employees who have actually accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government task within five years.
Only a number of firms have actually telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These consist of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.
OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.
On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent an email to all 19,000 workers announcing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.
Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for remark 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)
