Department offices ordered closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit strategies for massive layoffs

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

The terminations belong to the department's "last mission," it said in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing for clingy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated "yes," adding that doing so "was the president's required." 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 offices in the Washington area near staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to questions about the nature of the security issues the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus deceitful loan providers.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world's richest 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 thousands of programs and agreements, regardless of lots of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE's blunt-force technique has actually frustrated several White House officials and Republican lawmakers, a few of whom have actually faced mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several firms have provided staff members payments to retire early to fulfill Trump's need.

Affected Education Department employees 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 previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and unattended unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the countless employees who have devoted their careers 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 bloated. DOGE declares it has conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have used lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who accept 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 uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help fulfill the Thursday deadline, human resources specialists at several federal firms told Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's property portfolio, is also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently provided perks of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another government job within five years.

Only a number of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the second phase 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 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 offered up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 employees announcing 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 previous offer by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment outside of typical U.S. business hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)