Department offices purchased closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send plans for massive layoffs

(Adds new government report on inappropriate 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 companies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump's due date to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "last mission," it said in a news release, alluding to to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in 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 workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered workplaces in the Washington area closed to staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security issues prompting the closures.

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

The layoffs are the most recent step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize 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 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force technique has annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have actually faced upset constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have used employees payments to retire early to fulfill Trump's demand.

Affected Education Department employees will be put on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department stated.

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would battle the "extreme cuts."

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless employees who have actually 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 argued that the government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in improper payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The huge bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The overall improper payments figure was down greatly from 2023's $236 billion, the GAO said.

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who concur 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction way to assist meet the Thursday due date, human resources professionals at several federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.