Multiple sources have confirmed that the Education Department cut staff across the board on Wednesday. This included the civil rights office. The move came a day after Trump stated he wanted to eliminate the department.
Sources said that terminations were sent primarily to probationary employees who had been hired in the past year. Employees received layoff letters via email on Tuesday. Employees were informed that they can appeal their termination to the Merit Systems Protection Board, if they feel they have been fired “for political or partisan reasons” or due to marital status.
On Capitol Hill, the firing notifications were delivered as former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon – Mr. Trump’s nominee for secretary of education – faced questions by senators during her hearing.
As CBS News span class=”link”>a data-invalid-url-rewritten href=”https://www.cbnews.com/news/trump’s considers executive action for the education department/” target=”_blank”>previously reported/a>, Mr. Trump is considering taking executive action that would dismantle the Department of Education. His willingness to dismantle a large part of the U.S. Agency for International Development indicates CBS News reported that Mr. Trump was considering an executive action to dismantle his department. This would include ending certain programs and transferring some responsibilities to another part of the government.
The president told White House reporters on Wednesday: “Oh, it’s a problem I would like to have resolved immediately.” “Look, this Department of Education has been a huge con.”
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), one of the biggest employee unions in the United States, has confirmed that probationary employees of the Small Business Administration were also affected. AFGE does not have an exact count of the workers affected by these layoffs. The union stated that it only knows about the workers who have reached out to them. McMahon was the SBA’s director during Donald Trump’s first tenure.
The extent of the layoffs in the Education Department and elsewhere is not clear.
McMahon’s hearing could be complicated by terminations at Education Department, as Democrats ask her if she will follow through on any plan of the President to close the Department “immediately.”
A federal judge approved late Wednesday to allow the Trump administration to implement its offer to federal employees who wish to defer their resignation. An official in the Trump administration said that about 75,000 federal employees accepted the offer. However, unions have warned that the federal government might not pay them until the end of fiscal year on Sept. 30, as promised. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced on Wednesday that the program was now closed to any new applicants.
