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Department workplaces bought shut down up until Thursday

Agencies cut workers using lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is deadline to submit plans for large-scale layoffs

(Adds brand-new federal 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing completely, as federal government agencies scrambled to fulfill President Donald Trump's due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations belong to the department's "final mission," it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil rights laws in schools and supplies federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department's dismantling, 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 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took office in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm ordered workplaces in the Washington location closed to staff from Tuesday evening through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not immediately respond 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 aid agency, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which protects Americans against unethical loan providers.

The layoffs are the newest step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the federal government, led by the world's wealthiest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has actually cut more than 100,000 jobs throughout the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, regardless of lots of claims challenging the legality of those relocations.

DOGE's blunt-force technique has actually irritated a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, a few of whom have faced upset constituents at town halls. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first significant public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have actually been ordered to come up with large-scale layoff strategies by Thursday, setting up the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several companies have actually provided employees payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's demand.

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

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

"What is clear from the previous weeks of mass firings, chaos, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless workers who have actually devoted their professions 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 government is wasteful and puffed up. DOGE claims it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has actually only openly recorded a portion of those savings, and its accounting has been afflicted by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in incorrect payments in fiscal year 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office annual report launched on Tuesday. The huge majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal investments topped $6.75 trillion because financial year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other firms have actually used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees who consent to leave their jobs. 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 uses, integrated with another program that eases eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being welcomed as a lower-friction way to assist satisfy the Thursday due date, human resources professionals at a number of federal companies .

The Trump administration has been coming to grips with myriad claims 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 also seeking approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, 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 outside of U.S. business hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually currently used rewards of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance experts said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less susceptible to legal obstacles. It also needs 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 the number of staff members they prepare to cut in the second stage of layoffs. These consist of 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 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 given up until March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Food and Drug Administration sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 staff members 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 offer by including 2 months of full pay in addition to the benefit, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed remark 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)