Department offices bought shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government firms scrambled to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "last mission," it stated in a press release, alluding to Trump's vow to eliminate the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, imposes civil liberties laws in schools and provides federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the firings would lead to the department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated "yes," including that doing so "was the president's mandate." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company purchased workplaces in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson 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 company, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans against unscrupulous lenders.

The layoffs are the latest step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world's wealthiest person 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 aid and canceled countless programs and contracts, in spite of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has irritated a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually faced angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his very first significant public relocation to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several agencies have provided staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's demand.

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

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

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of employees who have actually committed 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 saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been afflicted by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The vast bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The total inappropriate payments figure was down sharply from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO said.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers 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 uses, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at a number of federal firms informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole 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 provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonus offers of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance specialists said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It also needs employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within five years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed how lots 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 provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were given until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent an email to all 19,000 staff members 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 prior offer by adding two months of full pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS could not be grabbed remark outside of 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)