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Department offices purchased shut down till Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 staff, a possible precursor to closing altogether, as government agencies rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump's deadline to submit plans for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "last objective," it said in a news release, mentioning Trump's vow to eliminate the department, which manages $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 firings would cause the department's taking apart, 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, down from 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered offices in the Washington location near staff from Tuesday night 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 issues triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned 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 safeguards Americans against unethical 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 cut more than 100,000 tasks throughout the 2.3 million-member federal bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, regardless of dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has annoyed numerous White House officials and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have faced angry constituents at town halls. Trump informed department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first noteworthy public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. government agencies have been ordered to come up with massive layoff plans by Thursday, setting up the next phase of Trump's cost-cutting campaign. Several companies have actually used workers payments to retire early to satisfy 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 workers said it would combat the "oppressive cuts."

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and unchecked unprofessionalism is that this routine has no respect for the thousands of employees who have actually committed 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 federal government is wasteful and bloated. DOGE claims it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just openly recorded a fraction of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by mistakes.

The federal government reported an estimated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in financial year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The huge bulk were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal expenses topped $6.75 trillion in that financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually offered 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 Fda.

The buyout provides, combined with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction method to assist satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources experts at a number of federal firms told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been grappling with myriad lawsuits after it fired thousands of probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and basically dismantled entire 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 workers, according to an email sent out by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be grabbed comment beyond U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used 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 vulnerable to legal obstacles. It likewise needs employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the cash if they take another federal government job within five years.

Only a number of firms have telegraphed how many staff members they plan to cut in the 2nd phase 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 actually offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its employees, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were given up until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 employees announcing 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 prior offer by including two months of full pay in addition to the perk, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS could not be reached for remark beyond typical U.S. service 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)