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Department workplaces bought shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit prepare for massive layoffs

(Adds brand-new government report on incorrect payments, paragraphs 12-14)

By Timothy Gardner, Tim Reid, Alexandra Alper and Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Education said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government firms scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump's deadline to submit strategies for a second round of mass layoffs.

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

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

Before announcing the layoffs, the firm bought workplaces in the Washington location closed to personnel from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notification seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately react to concerns about the nature of the security problems triggering the closures.

Similar closures worked as a precursor to shuttering the head office of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the humanitarian help agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which safeguards Americans versus unscrupulous lending .

The layoffs are the current step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize 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 throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite lots of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force method has irritated numerous White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have challenged angry constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his very first notable public relocation to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been bought to come up with massive layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several companies have actually used workers payments to retire early to meet Trump's demand.

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

The union representing more than 2,800 department workers said it would fight the "drastic cuts."

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass shootings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this regime has no respect for the thousands of employees who have actually dedicated their careers to serve their fellow Americans," stated Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252.

Trump and Musk have argued that the federal government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually conserved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by mistakes.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to workers who agree 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, integrated with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to help satisfy the Thursday deadline, human resources professionals at numerous federal companies told Reuters.

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad lawsuits after it fired countless probationary workers 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 government's property portfolio, is likewise seeking approval to offer the buyout payments to employees, according to an email sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be reached for comment beyond U.S. company hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonuses of as much as $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the deal to pay back the cash if they take another federal government task within 5 years.

Only a number of companies have telegraphed the number of employees they plan to cut in the 2nd 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 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 knowledge of the matter. Employees were given up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers announcing 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 deal by adding 2 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 comment outside of typical U.S. company 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)