US Education Department to Cut Half its Staff As Trump Eyes Its

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<br>Department workplaces bought shut down till Thursday<br>
<br>Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement<br>
<br>Thursday is deadline to submit strategies for large-scale layoffs<br>
<br>(Adds brand-new government report on incorrect payments, paragraphs 12-14)<br>
<br>By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa Taylor<br>
<br>WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Education stated on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as federal government companies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s due date to send prepare for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.<br>
<br>The terminations are part of the department’s “final mission,” it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump’s vow to the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal funding for clingy districts.<br>
<br>Asked on Fox News whether the firings would result in the department’s taking apart, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said “yes,” adding that doing so “was the president’s mandate.” The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.<br>
<br>Before revealing the layoffs, the agency purchased offices in the Washington location near personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department spokesperson did not instantly react to questions about the nature of the security problems prompting the closures.<br>
<br>Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans versus dishonest lending institutions.<br>
<br>The layoffs are the most 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 across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled countless programs and agreements, despite lots of suits challenging the legality of those relocations.<br>
<br>DOGE’s blunt-force technique has frustrated several White House officials and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually confronted upset constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the final say on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.<br>
<br>All U.S. government agencies have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump’s cost-cutting project. Several companies have offered staff members payments to retire early to fulfill Trump’s demand.<br>
<br>Affected Education Department employees will be put on administrative leave starting on March 21, the department stated.<br>
<br>The union representing more than 2,800 department employees said it would battle the “drastic cuts.”<br>
<br>”What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, chaos, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect 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.<br>
<br>Trump and Musk have argued that the government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually just publicly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has been pestered by mistakes.<br>
<br>The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in improper payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report launched on Tuesday. The large bulk were overpayments, the report said. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because , according to the Congressional Budget Office.<br>
<br>The overall improper payments figure was down sharply from 2023’s $236 billion, the GAO stated.<br>
<br>EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS<br>
<br>Other firms have offered 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.<br>
<br>The buyout provides, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday due date, human resources experts at numerous federal companies told Reuters.<br>
<br>The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad claims after it fired countless probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.<br>
<br>The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government’s home portfolio, is also looking for approval to use the buyout payments to employees, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already offered rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.<br>
<br>Personnels and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal obstacles. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another federal government job within 5 years.<br>
<br>Only a couple of companies have actually telegraphed the number of employees they prepare to cut in the second phase 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.<br>
<br>OPM itself has provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided till March 12 to react.<br>
<br>On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an email to all 19,000 staff members revealing a Friday, March 14, deadline for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.<br>
<br>Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its prior deal by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could 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)<br>

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