Department offices bought closed down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send strategies for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump's due date to send strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations are part of the department's "final mission," it said in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which supervises $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 lead to the department's taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said "yes," adding that doing so "was the president's required." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before announcing the layoffs, the agency ordered offices in the Washington location near personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to questions 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 help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unethical lenders.

The layoffs are the current step 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 cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout 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 technique has annoyed a number of White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have faced mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first noteworthy public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government firms have actually been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several agencies have actually used employees payments to retire early to meet Trump's demand.

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 employees said it would combat the "extreme cuts."

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless employees who have devoted 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 puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just openly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in financial year 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 because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually offered lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to employees who 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 offers, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at numerous federal companies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed comment outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal challenges. It likewise requires employees who have accepted the deal to repay the money if they take another government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of firms have 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 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is preparing to cut 1,029 staff.

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 till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent 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 prior offer by adding two months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond normal U.S. company 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)