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

Department offices bought closed down until Thursday

Agencies cut workers utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send strategies for massive layoffs

(Adds 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 altogether, as federal government firms scrambled to satisfy President Donald Trump's due date to send strategies for a 2nd round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "final objective," it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to remove the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for needy districts.

Asked on Fox News whether the shootings would result in the department's dismantling, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon stated "yes," including 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.

Before announcing the layoffs, the company bought workplaces in the Washington area near staff from Tuesday night through Wednesday, according to an internal notice seen by Reuters. An Education Department representative did not instantly react to concerns about the nature of the security concerns triggering the closures.

Similar closures functioned 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 versus deceitful lending institutions.

The layoffs are the most current action in Trump's sweeping effort to scale down the federal government, led by the world's richest individual Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign help and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite lots of suits challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force method has frustrated a number of White House authorities and Republican legislators, some of whom have actually faced mad constituents at city center. Trump told department heads last week that they, not Musk, have the last word on staffing, his first noteworthy public transfer to limit the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government firms have been purchased to come up with large-scale layoff plans by Thursday, establishing the next stage of Trump's cost-cutting project. Several companies have used workers payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's need.

Affected Education Department workers will be positioned on administrative leave beginning on March 21, the department said.

The union representing more than 2,800 department employees stated it would battle the "severe cuts."

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, mayhem, and uncontrolled unprofessionalism is that this program has no respect for the countless workers who have actually committed their professions to serve their fellow Americans," stated 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 puffed up. it has saved $105 billion in cuts, but it has just publicly documented a portion of those savings, and its accounting has actually been pestered by errors.

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

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other agencies have actually provided lump-sum payments of as much as $25,000 before tax to workers who agree 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 Fda.

The buyout offers, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being accepted as a lower-friction way to help meet the Thursday due date, personnels experts at a number of federal agencies informed Reuters.

The Trump administration has been facing myriad suits after it fired countless probationary workers in a first wave of mass layoffs and essentially dismantled whole departments like USAID and CFPB.

The General Services Administration, which manages the federal government's property portfolio, is likewise looking for approval to use the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent out by its acting head to personnel on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA might not be grabbed remark outside of U.S. service hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has currently used bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Human resources and public governance specialists stated the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal challenges. It likewise requires employees who have actually accepted the offer to repay the money if they take another government task within five years.

Only a couple of companies have telegraphed the number of workers they prepare to cut in the 2nd phase of layoffs. These include the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is aiming to cut more than 80,000 employees, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is planning to cut 1,029 personnel.

OPM itself has offered lump-sum payments to some 650 of its workers, according to another individual with knowledge of the matter. Employees were provided up until March 12 to respond.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an e-mail to all 19,000 workers 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 deal by adding 2 months of full pay in addition to the bonus offer, according to a copy of the e-mail seen by Reuters. HHS might not be reached for 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, writing by Nathan Layne and Joseph Ax; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio and Muralikumar Anantharaman)