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Department offices ordered shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new government report on improper 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 staff, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government companies scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump's deadline to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "final objective," it said in a news release, alluding to Trump's vow to get rid of the department, which supervises $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and offers federal funding for needy districts.

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

Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought offices in the Washington area near to personnel from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.

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

The layoffs are the current step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the federal 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 administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has actually annoyed a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced upset constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first noteworthy public move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government companies have actually been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, establishing the next phase of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several firms have actually used staff members payments to retire early to fulfill Trump's demand.

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

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

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the thousands of employees who have actually devoted their professions 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 is wasteful and bloated. DOGE declares it has saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just openly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The overall incorrect payments figure was down sharply 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 workers who consent 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 Fda.

The buyout uses, integrated with another program that reduces eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources specialists at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad suits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart entire departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to offer the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for remark beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently provided benefits of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It also requires workers who have accepted the deal to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with understanding of the matter. Employees were offered until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers 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 deal by adding two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond normal U.S. service 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)