Education rescinded the RIF actions for OCR staff in early January 2026, and reinstated staff to their positions of record. Image: NLM Photo/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Education Department didn’t meet the Trump administration’s own requirements for assessing and documenting what turned out to be a back-and-forth RIF in its Office of Civil Rights ordered early last year and rescinded last month, the GAO has said.
It further estimated the cost of the paid leave for employees who were kept away from the workplace pending separation, but now reinstated, as up to $38 million through late 2025.
The GAO recounted that about 300 employees of the office, nearly half its staff, initially received RIF notices last March and were placed on administrative leave as part of a broader staff cut at the department. That was done under a February executive order requiring agencies to prepare to undertake “large-scale reductions in force”; OMB and OPM guidance in turn told them to produce “Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans” that documented potential costs and savings
“We determined the agency could not demonstrate that it included all potential costs and savings and did not document these analyses . . . The agency analyzed costs and savings associated with the OCR RIF actions, according to Education officials. It did not document these analyses, although OMB and OPM guidance directed agencies to do so,” the GAO said.
It added: “Education has made some information publicly available about the cost of salaries and benefits for OCR staff on administrative leave due to the RIF but has not provided information about other potential costs” such as severance pay, unemployment insurance, administrative costs to process RIF actions, and costs associated with appeals or grievances.
GAO recounted that the general RIF and the RIF as it applied to the OCR were at first stopped by court injunctions, each of which later was stayed. While nearly 100 OCR employees were reinstated last September, the following month nearly 140 received new RIF notices, which in turn were blocked by last November’s temporary funding bill. The department meanwhile started recalling more employees while saying in December that it still would proceed with the RIFs. Finally, “Education rescinded the RIF actions for OCR staff in early January 2026, and reinstated staff to their positions of record.”
If all of the RIFs planned at one time another had been carried out, the component would have been left with about 60 employees, a tenth of its level of a year ago, the GAO said; due to attrition, the component was down to about 450 employees as of late November.
“By not demonstrating that its analyses accounted for all potential costs and savings, and by not documenting such analyses, Education lacks reasonable assurance that its RIF actions achieved the stated goal of reforming the federal workforce to maximize efficiency and productivity,” it said.
The department said the issue is moot because the RIFs have been rescinded, but the GAO nonetheless recommended a full assessment. GAO added that even though Education had said it could not fully participate in the audit because of the litigation, pending litigation does not affect its authority to collect information from agencies nor their obligation to provide it.
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