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Department workplaces purchased shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to send strategies 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 nearly half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government agencies rushed to meet President Donald Trump's deadline to submit prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

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

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

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

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans versus deceitful lenders.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world's richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and contracts, despite dozens of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force method has actually irritated a number of White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have confronted upset constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first notable public relocate to restrain the Tesla CEO.

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

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would battle the "heavy-handed cuts."

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the thousands of workers who have devoted their professions 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 inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has only openly recorded a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has been plagued 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 annual report released on Tuesday. The vast majority were overpayments, the report said. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who consent 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 relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction method to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at several federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been coming to grips with myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed comment beyond U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already offered bonuses of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also requires workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government task within 5 years.

Only a couple of agencies have actually telegraphed the number of staff members they plan to cut in the second stage 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 planning to cut 1,029 staff.

OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. were provided till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would have to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by including two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for comment beyond regular 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)