CNS | 씨엔에스

• 목록
• 글쓰기
• 게시판 리스트 옵션
  • 수정
  • 삭제

Department offices purchased shut down until Thursday

Agencies cut employees utilizing lump-sum payments, early retirement

Thursday is due date to send prepare for large-scale layoffs

(Adds new 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 said on Tuesday it would lay off almost half its personnel, a possible precursor to closing entirely, as federal government companies rushed to meet President Donald Trump's due date to send prepare for a second round of mass layoffs.

The terminations become part of the department's "final mission," it stated in a press release, mentioning Trump's vow to get rid of the department, which manages $1.6 trillion in college loans, implements civil liberties laws in schools and offers federal financing for clingy 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 mandate." The layoffs would leave the department with 2,183 employees, below 4,133 when Trump took workplace in January.

Before revealing the layoffs, the firm bought offices 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 immediately respond to concerns about the nature of the security issues 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 against unscrupulous loan providers.

The layoffs are the 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 actually cut more than 100,000 tasks across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and agreements, despite dozens of claims challenging the legality of those moves.

DOGE's blunt-force approach has actually irritated numerous White House authorities and Republican lawmakers, some of whom have faced upset constituents at city center. Trump told department heads recently that they, not Musk, have the last say on staffing, his very first significant public move to restrain the Tesla CEO.

All U.S. federal government agencies 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 agencies have provided staff members payments to retire early to satisfy Trump's demand.

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

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

"What is clear from the past weeks of mass firings, turmoil, and untreated unprofessionalism is that this regime has no regard for the thousands of employees who have 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 argued that the government is inefficient and bloated. DOGE declares it has actually saved $105 billion in cuts, however it has actually just publicly recorded a portion of those cost savings, and its accounting has actually been plagued by errors.

The federal government reported an approximated $162 billion in inappropriate payments in 2024, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office yearly report released on Tuesday. The large majority were overpayments, the report stated. Total federal outlays topped $6.75 trillion because fiscal year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

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

EARLY RETIREMENT OFFERS

Other companies have actually used lump-sum payments of approximately $25,000 before tax to employees 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, combined with another program that alleviates eligibility requirements for early retirement, are being embraced as a lower-friction method to the Thursday due date, human resources professionals at a number of federal firms informed Reuters.

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

The General Services Administration, which handles the government's home portfolio, is also looking for approval to provide the buyout payments to workers, according to an e-mail sent by its acting head to staff on Monday and seen by Reuters. The GSA could not be reached for comment outside of U.S. organization hours. The Securities and Exchange Commission has actually already used bonus offers of approximately $50,000, Reuters reported.

Personnels and public governance professionals said the appeal of the buyout program is that it is voluntary and less vulnerable to legal difficulties. It likewise needs workers who have accepted the offer to pay back the cash if they take another government task within five years.

Only a couple of firms have telegraphed the number of workers they plan to cut in the second phase of layoffs. These consist of 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 staff members, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. Employees were offered till March 12 to react.

On Monday, the HR department of the Fda sent out an email to all 19,000 employees revealing a Friday, March 14, due date for a buyout program. Those who accept would need to retire by April 19.

Late on Monday, HHS sweetened its previous offer by including two months of full pay in addition to the reward, according to a copy of the email seen by Reuters. HHS might not be grabbed comment outside of regular 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)