Department workplaces bought shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as government agencies rushed to meet President Donald Trump's due date to send strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "final objective," it said in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to eliminate the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and supplies federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would lead to the department's taking apart, 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 employees, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the agency purchased workplaces in the Washington location near to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not right away react to concerns about the nature of the security issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against unscrupulous lending institutions.

The layoffs are the current action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the government, led by the world's richest person 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 help and canceled countless programs and contracts, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

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

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

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

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

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass shootings, turmoil, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the thousands of workers 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 argued that the federal government is inefficient and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly documented a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in incorrect payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The large bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion in that , according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to employees who concur 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 Food and Drug Administration.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help fulfill the Thursday due date, personnels professionals at several federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has actually been facing myriad claims after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a very first wave of mass layoffs and essentially took apart whole 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 provide the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has already provided bonuses of up to $50,000, Reuters reported.

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

Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed how many staff members they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming 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 used lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to react.

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

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous deal by adding 2 months of complete pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for comment beyond regular U.S. company hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, additional reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)