Department offices purchased closed down up until Thursday

Agencies cut employees using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal 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 almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government firms rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump's due date to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "last mission," it stated in a news release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal funding for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would cause the department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said "yes," including that doing so "was the president's required." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered offices in the Washington area 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 concerns prompting the closures.

Similar closures served as a precursor to shuttering the headquarters of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help firm, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which secures Americans against deceitful loan providers.

The layoffs are the most recent action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down 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 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian administration, frozen most foreign help and canceled countless programs and contracts, regardless of lots of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has actually irritated a number of White House officials and Republican legislators, a few of whom have actually challenged mad constituents at city center. Trump informed department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his first significant public move to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been bought to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have provided employees payments to retire early to meet Trump's need.

Affected Education Department staff members will be placed on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department stated.

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

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this routine has no regard for the countless workers who have actually committed their careers 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 wasteful and puffed up. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a fraction of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

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 huge bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion in that fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have used lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 before tax to workers who accept 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 provides, integrated with another program that relieves eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to assist meet the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at numerous federal agencies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary employees in a very first wave of mass layoffs and basically took apart whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which handles the federal government's residential or commercial property portfolio, is likewise 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 grabbed comment outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently provided bonuses of up to $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 obstacles. It also needs workers who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another government job within five years.

Only a couple of agencies have telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the 2nd 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 preparing to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has actually provided lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another individual with understanding of the matter. Employees were given 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, deadline 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 complete pay in addition to the bonus, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark outside of typical U.S. service hours. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner, Alexandra Alper, Tim Reid and Marisa Taylor, extra reporting by Nathan Layne and Kanishka Singh, composing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)