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Department workplaces bought shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit strategies for massive layoffs

(Adds new federal 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit plans for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "last objective," it stated in a press release, pointing to Trump's vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil rights laws in schools and supplies 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 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 office in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency purchased offices in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures acted as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus unscrupulous loan providers.

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down 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 throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, regardless of lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force technique has frustrated a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first significant public transfer to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies have actually been bought 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 workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's need.

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

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

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no regard for the countless workers 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 actually argued that the federal government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report released on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The total improper payments figure was down dramatically from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO stated.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers 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 offers, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at numerous federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of and basically dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government's property portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also requires workers who have accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of staff members 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 workers, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members revealing 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 prior deal by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for remark outside of regular U.S. organization 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)