• The Department of Education began terminating half its staff on Tuesday.
• It's the Trump administration's first major move to dismantle the agency.
• Eliminating a federal agency would still require an act of Congress.

DOGE slashing has begun at the agency that oversees trillions of dollars of student loans, disburses grants to low-income students and those with disabilities, and collects data on kids' reading and math outcomes.

The Department of Education announced on Tuesday night that it is terminating over 1,300 workers as part of the agency's workforce reduction plans and the broader culling of the federal government inspired by the White House's DOGE office. A senior administration official said that those terminations, combined with nearly 600 employees who already voluntarily resigned, will effectively cut the department's workforce by 50%.

It's the agency's first major step toward advancing President Donald Trump's goal of dismantling the Department of Education. He told reporters in early February that he wants the department to be closed "immediately" and for its new head Linda McMahon to "put herself out of a job."

"Already, parents, teachers, and students across the country are worried about the chaos and confusion that Trump's dismantling of the agency will unleash," Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. "Shutting down an agency that provides financial aid to families, funds afterschool programs, and enforces our nation's civil rights laws doesn't help our students learn and doesn't make our country better."

The senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday that these terminations will not impact the agency's external-facing functions, like the disbursement of Pell Grants and student loans. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement that the cuts reflect the department's "commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers."

While the Trump administration affirmed that the department would continue to meet the needs of Americans despite the cuts, it's likely more changes are coming in an attempt to fulfill the president's aim to abolish the agency altogether.

The future of the Department of Education

Closing a federal agency requires 60 Senate votes, meaning Trump cannot shut down the Department of Education on his own.

It's something McMahon has previously acknowledged, telling NewsNation last week that her "job is to convince Congress that the steps that we are taking are in the best interest of the kids, and that they would vote to close the Department of Education if they feel confident that at the state level, that those kids are going to receive a better education."

Trump has not yet signed an executive order directing McMahon to shut down the agency.

While the administration official said that the latest cuts are aimed at eliminating department redundancies, some advocates raised the alarm about what this means for the agency's future.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that making cuts at "an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it."

"The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country," Weingarten said.

Even before these latest terminations, some Education Department employees told BI last month that they were concerned about the agency's future. The Trump administration cut over $900 million in research contracts at the department, and one employee said that following kids' low reading scores, "this is the absolute worst time to divest from education research."

GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, chair of the Senate education committee, wrote in a post on X that he spoke to McMahon, and she affirmed that the cuts would not impact the department's "ability to carry out its statutory obligations."

Beth Maglione, the interim president and CEO of NASFAA — an association for student financial aid administrators — isn't convinced.

"Claiming that eliminating half the Department won't affect its services — without any clear plan to redistribute the workload — is, at best, naive and, at worst, deliberately misleading," Maglione said. "It also raises serious concerns about how billions of dollars in federal student aid will continue to be disbursed to students without interruption."

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• The Department of Education announced Tuesday that it's firing over 1,300 employees.
• This will slash the agency's workforce in half, a senior administration official said.
• The official said that these terminations will not impact student aid or grant disbursements.

The Department of Education said on Tuesday that it's firing over 1,300 employees, leaving the agency with just over half the number of workers that were in place before President Donald Trump's took office for his second term.

A senior administration official confirmed to reporters that the department is beginning to send termination notices to 1,315 employees beginning at 6 p.m. EST on Tuesday and that the department's focus with this reduction in force was eliminating full teams the agency deemed redundant or unnecessary.

The official said that of the 4,133 total staff at the department, 259 took the administration's deferred resignation offer, and 313 accepted the department's $25,000 voluntary buyout. About 2,183 employees will remain at the agency after these terminations, the official said.

Fired employees will have 90 days until they are officially terminated, and they will receive full pay and benefits during that time, along with severance payments to follow. These terminations are in addition to the 63 probationary employees who were already fired from the agency, the official said, and they will not impact key functions like the administration of federal student aid, grants for special needs students, and civil rights investigations.

"Today's reduction in force reflects the Department of Education's commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers," Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. "I appreciate the work of the dedicated public servants and their contributions to the Department. This is a significant step toward restoring the greatness of the United States education system."

The department said that terminated employees will be placed on administrative leave beginning March 21 until the reduction in force is complete on June 9.

One Education Department employee told BI that the news "makes me sick."

"I'm just waiting for 6 p.m ET to roll around to see if I get an email," the employee said. "Of course there will be no rhyme or reason to it. They will indiscriminately fire people without regard to tenure, program, project, performance, impact, or any other useful metric."

The terminations are coming just over a week after McMahon outlined the "final mission" for the department, which she said would include removing "bureaucratic barriers" within the agency. They signal a step toward President Donald Trump's overall goal to eliminate the Department of Education altogether.

Following news of the terminations, the American Federation of Government Employees local chapter president, Sheria Smith, said in a statement that the union will "fight these draconian cuts."

"We will not stand idly by while this regime pulls the wool over the eyes of the American people," Smith said. "We will state the facts. Every employee at the U.S. Department of Education lives in your communities — we are your neighbors, your friends, your family. And we have spent our careers supporting services that you rely on."

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• Trump said that he's placing an additional 25% tariff on steel and aluminum coming from Canada.
• The stock market extended its sell-off, with automakers and industrial companies hit the hardest.
• Trump also said he'd increase tariffs on cars coming into the US if Canada didn't remove its tariffs.

President Donald Trump is ramping up his trade war against Canada as markets have tumbled in part because of the latest round of tariffs.

On Tuesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he instructed his commerce secretary to place an additional 25% tariff on steel and aluminum coming from Canada into the US, bringing the tariff rate on those imports to 50%.

Trump said those tariffs would go into effect on Wednesday. He added in the post that he would declare a national emergency over electricity to push back on Canada's threats to shut off power in some US regions if Trump continued to enforce tariffs.

"This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada," Trump wrote.

Investors sold stocks on the news, with the major market averages all posting losses that accelerated following Trump's Truth Social post. The Dow Jones Industrial Average had shed 633 points at its intraday low.

The stocks that appeared most negatively affected by the elevated tariffs were those of automakers and industrial companies, which count steel and aluminum as major inputs.

General Motors and Ford each declined as much as 4%, while the industrials sector declined about 2%, double the S&P 500's decline of 1%.

Steelmakers' stocks appeared positively affected by the tariff news, with US Steel and Nucor both rising as much as 3%.

Tuesday's stock market sell-off extended the painful decline from Monday, when the Nasdaq composite dropped 4%, its worst day since 2022. Since the sell-off began in mid-February, the S&P 500 is down about 9%, while the Nasdaq is off by about 13%.

After Trump placed a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico on March 4, which was later suspended until April 2, Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said he would place a 25% retaliatory tariff on $155 billion worth of American goods until Trump's tariffs were withdrawn.

While Canada has not yet responded to the latest tariff increase, Trump said in his Truth Social post on Tuesday that if Canada did not drop its own tariffs on US goods, he would on April 2 "substantially increase" tariffs on cars coming into the US. He said this would, "essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada." He added: "Those cars can easily be made in the USA!"

Trudeau said ahead of the first round of 25% tariffs that Americans would feel the pain from Trump's trade war.

"Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs," Trudeau said in a statement on March 3. "Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship."

The tariffs Trump has placed on Canada, Mexico, and China have been intended to achieve the administration's policy goals — particularly cracking down on drug and border policy. Trump said on Thursday that he would be pausing tariffs on Mexican goods for one month "out of respect" for Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

• Democratic lawmakers said they hope to work with Education Secretary Linda McMahon on student-loan servicer oversight.
• They pointed to new data on MOHELA, which the Education Department found had the worst performance metrics.
• McMahon previously signaled a willingness to review student-loan servicer performance.

President Donald Trump's new education secretary might find room for agreement with Democrats on a key issue: making sure student-loan servicers do their jobs.

On Monday night, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren led a group of Democratic lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Rep. James Clyburn, in sending a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon regarding oversight over the companies that manage millions of student-loan borrowers' federal loans.

"Despite our disagreements, we look forward to working with you where we can find common ground," the lawmakers wrote in the letter, first viewed by Business Insider. "One such area may be accountability for federal student loan servicers."

They specifically pointed to servicer MOHELA, which manages over 7 million borrowers' accounts. New data released by the Department of Education in January showed that MOHELA was the worst-performing servicer based on the three metrics the department measured: customer satisfaction, call wait times, and call abandon rates.

The department found that MOHELA took, on average, 2 minutes and 55 seconds to answer a borrower's call, about 12 times longer than Central Research, Inc., the newest federal servicer. It also found that MOHELA's average abandon rate, which is the percentage of borrowers who ask to speak to a representative but hang up before being connected, was 7.37%, far above Nelnet's 0.76% rate and Central Research's 1.33% rate.

Following McMahon's confirmation hearing, she wrote to Democratic lawmakers that she looks "forward to working with Department and FSA staff to review the performance of our current contractors with the goal of improving service delivery on behalf of students, their families, and taxpayers."

The lawmakers told McMahon that they are hoping to work with her on applying "corrective measures" to hold MOHELA and other federal servicers accountable for poor performance.

"If MOHELA does not clean up its act, ED should also consider terminating its contract with the servicer," the lawmakers said.

MOHELA was the first federal servicer to receive an enforcement action from former President Joe Biden's Education Department in 2023 found that MOHELA failed to send on-time billing statements to 2.5 million borrowers, leading the department to withhold over $7 million in pay from the servicer.

Biden later withheld pay from the remaining three federal servicers for failing to fulfill their contractual obligations and published an accountability framework to ensure servicers are working in the best interest of borrowers.

It's unclear how McMahon will handle servicer oversight going forward. After being confirmed as education secretary last week, she released a memo outlining the Department of Education's "final mission." It included strengthening parents' roles in their kids' educations, removing "divisive DEI programs" from public education, and ensuring postsecondary education programs are aligned with workforce needs.

She later affirmed during an interview with NewsNation that she is examining ways to move forward with Trump's goal to dismantle the Department of Education. While she acknowledged that shutting down an agency would require 60 votes in the Senate, she is looking at options to transfer the administration of student loans to a different federal agency.

"I think my job is to convince Congress that the steps that we are taking are in the best interest of the kids, and that they would vote to close the Department of Education if they feel confident that at the state level, that those kids are going to receive a better education," McMahon said.

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• NASA will shutter three departments, according to an email reviewed by BI.
• The email said that the closures are part of a larger reduction in force.
• Twenty-three employees were fired on Monday, an agency spokesperson told BI.

NASA has officially started its restructuring effort.

The agency will close three departments as part of the Trump administration's broader goal to reduce the federal workforce, according to an email reviewed by Business Insider.

NASA employees received the email on Monday from the agency's acting administrator, Janet Petro. The three departments affected are the Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility branch of the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. An agency spokesperson told BI that 23 individuals were fired.

"NASA's Office of the Chief Scientist is tasked with ensuring that all the Agency's scientific endeavors align with the Administration's goals. Eliminating the office sends a chilling message that NASA's scientists aren't part of the nation's goals," a current NASA employee told BI in a written response.

Petro said the changes put the agency in compliance with President Donald Trump's executive order to implement the White House DOGE office's workplace restructuring.

She wrote that Monday marked the beginning of NASA's reduction in force effort.

"While this will mean making difficult adjustments, we're viewing this as an opportunity to reshape our workforce, ensuring we are doing what is statutorily required of us, while also providing American citizens with an efficient and effective agency," Petro wrote in the email.

It's not clear if all employees in the departments were terminated, or if some might be moved to different areas within NASA.

"A small number of individuals received notification Monday they are a part of NASA's RIF. If they're eligible, those employees may opt to participate in the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, or VERA, or complete the RIF process," the NASA spokesperson told BI in a statement.

Representatives for DOGE and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

The latest restructuring plans from NASA follow weeks of changes to the federal workforce. The Trump administration has fired thousands of workers across a range of federal agencies and has cut billions of dollars in federal spending programs. The Office of Personnel Management also instructed all federal agencies to develop reorganization plans by March 13.

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• Trump signed an executive order seeking to limit Public Service Loan Forgiveness eligibility.
• The Education Department said on Monday that the program "is not changing today."
• The order asked the department to ensure the definition of "public service" aligns with the administration's views.

President Donald Trump's Department of Education is assuring student-loan borrowers that changes to a key forgiveness program aren't here — yet.

After Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, the Federal Student Aid office posted on X that borrowers enrolled in the program won't be facing any changes at this point.

"The U.S. Department of Education is reviewing the recent executive order regarding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program," FSA wrote. "The PSLF Program is not changing today, and borrowers do not need to take any action."

Trump's executive order said that organizations engaging in "activities that advance illegal immigration, terrorism, child abuse, discrimination, and public disruptions" would not be eligible for the program.

While it's unclear which specific organizations Trump is seeking to target that do not align with his administration's political views, the executive order directed the education and treasury secretaries to redefine what constitutes "public service" and ensure that participating PSLF employers align with the administration.

PSLF was created in 2007 to forgive student debt for government and nonprofit workers, like teachers and police officers, after 10 years of qualifying payments. Trump cannot make major changes to the program without Congress's approval. Some borrower advocates said that any attempt to change the program solely by executive order would result in legal challenges.

"Threatening to punish hardworking Americans for their employers' perceived political views is about as flagrant a violation of the First Amendment as you can imagine," Aaron Ament, the president of the borrower protection group Student Defense, said. "If the Trump Administration follows through on this threat, they can plan to see us in court."

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, similarly said in a statement that the federation "won't stop fighting, in court and in Congress, until every single public service worker gets the help the law affords them."

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said during her confirmation hearing that she would honor PSLF and that "if we want stronger or more programs for loan forgiveness, then I think Congress should pass those programs, and then we would implement it."

This is Trump's latest blow to federal workers. Over the past weeks, his administration has worked with Elon Musk and the White House's DOGE office, aimed at reducing government waste, to slash the federal workforce. The administration has fired thousands of federal workers across agencies and cut billions of dollars in federal programs, including the Department of Education's research arm.

Some Republican lawmakers lauded Trump's executive order. Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House education committee, said in a statement that Republicans "have long had concerns about the open-ended nature of PSLF."

The executive order "is in line with House Republican's goal of delivering the reforms to PSLF that are sorely needed," Walberg said.

Are you enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected].

• Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
• Trump said the order would restrict employers engaging in "anti-American" activities from participating.
• Millions of government and nonprofit workers rely on PSLF for student-debt relief.

President Donald Trump's latest executive order took on a major student-loan forgiveness program in the administration's latest attack on workers in government and nonprofits.

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting eligibility for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for workers like teachers, healthcare workers and police officers after 10 years of qualifying payments.

The order's incendiary rhetoric said that organizations engaging in "activities that advance illegal immigration, terrorism, child abuse, discrimination, and public disruptions" would be barred from the loan forgiveness program.

"The PSLF Program also creates perverse incentives that can increase the cost of tuition, can load students in low-need majors with unsustainable debt, and may push students into organizations that hide under the umbrella of a non-profit designation and degrade our national interest," the order said.

It's unclear what organizations the Trump administration intends to accuse of these "anti-American" activities. This comes as the administration carries out mass layoffs of federal workers. The order directed Linda McMahon, Trump's new education secretary, to redefine what "public service" is to align with the administration's political views. Student-loan borrower advocates say they'll take the administration to court if they follow through on this order.

According to the latest Education Department data, over 2 million borrowers were enrolled in PSLF with eligible employers as of December 2024.

This isn't the first time Trump has targeted PSLF. During his first term, his Department of Education ran up a backlog of PSLF applications. He has also previously suggested eliminating the program altogether. Doing so would require an act of Congress, and there has yet to be sufficient support to eliminate the program.

To address the backlog of PSLF applications and paperwork issues with the program, former President Joe Biden's Education Department introduced a limited-time waiver to allow borrowers' past payments — including those previously deemed ineligible for PSLF — to count toward their forgiveness progress.

Biden also carried out targeted relief for PSLF borrowers under one-time account adjustments in an effort to bring payments up-to-date. In his final weeks in office, he announced $465 million in debt cancellation for 6,100 borrowers enrolled in PSLF.

Amid Trump's efforts to limit the program, McMahon said during her confirmation hearing that she would honor the program as Congress intended.

She added: "If we want stronger or more programs for loan forgiveness, then I think Congress should pass those programs, and then we would implement it."

Some advocacy groups criticized the executive order. Aaron Ament, president of borrower protection group Student Defense, said in a statement that PSLF was created by a "bipartisan act of Congress" and "Americans have worked hard and made life decisions under the assumption that the US keeps its word."

"Threatening to punish hardworking Americans for their employers' perceived political views is about as flagrant a violation of the First Amendment as you can imagine," Ament said. "If the Trump Administration follows through on this threat, they can plan to see us in court."

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• Federal workers are protesting mass firings and workplace policy changes with subtle acts of dissent.
• The resistance follows workforce cuts and demands from Trump, Musk, and the White House's DOGE office.
• Workers are using snarky emails, pronouns, and legal action to counter the administration's policies.

First came the spoons, and then the staplers — subtle dissent is rippling through federal government offices in the era of cost cutting under Trump.

In response to a host of wide-ranging orders from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the White House's DOGE office, they're displaying pride flags, flaunting their pronouns, and sending snarky emails. As one worker said, it's all about "malicious compliance."

"I just go back and forth over which is worse: giving them what they want (an excuse to fire us) or kowtowing to their illegal bullshit," the federal worker told BI, referencing Musk's threat to workers who don't list their week's accomplishments in an email.

Business Insider spoke to 10 federal workers about the ways they're pushing back, granting them anonymity to protect their jobs. While some publicly booed leaders in meetings, others said they're trying to be subtle about their dissent because they aren't always sure which of their coworkers or bosses agree with them.

It's illustrative of the rift that's broken open in recent weeks as the administration has spearheaded efforts to terminate thousands of federal workers, cut federal funding to key programs, and change the way remaining employees do their jobs. The federal employees BI spoke to said they've found comfort in banding together and making statements on the job whenever they can.

The first signs were workers embracing a spoon symbol as a contrast to the "fork in the road" offered by the government, which tried to incentivize workers to leave under a deferred resignation program. A meme of a stapler referencing the cult-classic movie "Office Space" and daring someone to "come and take it" circulated online. And then there's good old-fashioned unionizing.

"This convinced me to join the union at my agency right away, and convince four coworkers to join too," a longtime federal worker said, adding that DOGE has been the "best thing" to ever happen to union membership.

Booing, ignoring emails, and sharing pronouns

BI heard it from dozens of federal workers in recent weeks: They didn't like the emails asking them to list their accomplishments from the past week. A worker at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that sent the Musk-inspired email, said that information sharing is "huge" among the federal workforce right now — including "ways to write your stupid bullet points."

One employee said that at a NASA town hall, workers booed a director who didn't have clear guidance on how to respond. A Department of Defense worker said, "A lot of people reported the emails as phishing."

While many federal agencies told workers that they were not required to respond to the first email, OPM sent a second email a week later — and some agencies shifted to requiring responses. A Health and Human Services worker was one of a few who said they'll continue to refuse to respond.

Several workers described protests against the administration's new policies regarding DEI and gender, as workers were asked to strip pronouns from their email signatures. Some NASA workers have been introducing themselves with their pronouns during town halls and company meetings, the NASA employee said, and some have pushed back on the agency taking down "gender neutral" signs on restrooms by putting their own signs up. One worker at the Social Security Administration said that while they can't include "she/her" in their email signature, they can still wear a button that says it.

"As soon as DEI stuff came down in the offices, it went up in our cubicles," the SSA worker said. "I know I went out and bought a Trans pride flag for my cubicle as soon as they made us only list male/female."

The NASA worker said that while they suspect there might be "DOGE sympathizers" in upper management, most of their coworkers are "pretty upset and have no problem asking about how to deal with DOGE." An OPM worker said they are being careful because they assume they're being monitored but that everyone they know has been "uniformly appalled." One Department of Defense worker said a coworker tried challenging them to a fight after overhearing them discuss their Trump-related fears.

"I try to be conscious about who I voice my opinions around," they said.

Potential legal action has also helped some employees resist the administration's changes. The OPM worker said that discussing how to file appeals with other employees has been unifying, and the HHS worker is hopeful that there will be further class actions to counter "the emotional distress, hostile work environment, and harassment."

Unions for federal workers filed a lawsuit on February 19 to block the Trump administration's firing of probationary federal workers, or workers who have typically been on the job for under one year. American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a statement that the administration "has abused the probationary period to conduct a chaotic, ill-informed, and politically-driven firing spree."

But for now, workers are engaging in moments of pushback: One federal worker is using their email signature to resist, signing off every email with a quote on the limits of OPM's power.

And the HHS worker is doing the most prudent thing for their career: "I've been trying to work business as usual," they said. "But I've also been applying to other jobs."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

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• Education Sec. Linda McMahon told NewsNation that over 300 employees accepted the $25,000 buyout.
• She also said that she's looking into transferring student loans and Pell Grants to other federal agencies.
• It's part of the Trump administration's broader goal to dismantle the Department of Education.

After being on the job for just a few days, President Donald Trump's new education secretary is already thinking about major changes to the Department of Education.

Linda McMahon told NewsNation during a Friday interview that while she "could stand to be corrected on this," over 300 employees accepted the Department of Education's $25,000 buyout they were offered last week.

The offer was part of the White House's DOGE office's larger mission to slash government waste by reducing the federal workforce. It follows an earlier deferred resignation offer from the administration that was offered to most federal employees.

"The responsibility of DOGE is to come in, review, as I've said, audit, and make recommendations of what they think would be helpful, and in taking out the waste and fraud and abuse they find," McMahon said. "But it is up to the agency head or the secretary to make the determination on how we move forward with those suggestions."

Here's what we know about McMahon's plans so far for the Department of Education.

What's next at the Department of Education

After McMahon was confirmed on Monday night, she released a memo detailing the Department of Education's "final mission" in support of Trump's goal to dismantle the department. That mission included prioritizing parents' role in their kids' educations, removing "divisive DEI programs" from classroom curricula, and ensuring postsecondary education programs lead to well-paying careers that fit into workplace needs.

When asked by NewsNation, McMahon declined to provide a timeline on when Trump's official executive order on dismantling the department is coming, but she reaffirmed that shutting down the agency would require 60 votes in the Senate.

"I think my job is to convince Congress that the steps that we are taking are in the best interest of the kids, and that they would vote to close the Department of Education if they feel confident that at the state level, that those kids are going to receive a better education," McMahon said.

McMahon and some Republican lawmakers have previously proposed transferring the Department of Education's responsibilities to other federal agencies if they shut it down. McMahon said that she is examining how Pell Grants and student loans "might best be served in another department, and we're looking as to where that could best be handled."

"This is not a turn off the lights and walk out of the department," she said. "It's with a close consultation with Congress and looking how the needs of students can best be serviced."

Some education policy experts previously told Business Insider that there's no proof that closing the department would actually improve student outcomes. The department has already cut $900 million in research contracts, which both employees and experts said would hinder the agency's ability to collect data on student outcomes.

"I have grave concerns about our future, even if the lights were able to turn on tomorrow, I don't know — what's already been done is just very detrimental," one employee of the Institute of Education Sciences — the Department's research and statistics arm facing severe spending cuts — told BI.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment.

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• The Social Security Administration told workers they couldn't access news or shopping websites.
• It said this move would help protect sensitive information within the agency.
• An employee who received the email told BI it could hinder the agency's work.

As the Trump administration continues to restructure the Social Security Administration, employees at the agency learned on Thursday that they're now prohibited from reading the news on their work computers.

SSA sent an agencywide email informing employees of new restrictions on internet browsing. The email, reviewed by Business Insider, said that starting on Thursday, employees were no longer allowed to access three categories of websites on "government-furnished equipment": online shopping, general news, and sports.

"Employees with a legitimate business should submit an exception" to their supervisor, the email said, adding: "These additional restrictions will help reduce risk and better protect the sensitive information entrusted to us in our many systems."

An SSA spokesperson told BI that "employees should be focused on mission-critical work and serving the American people. Therefore, we implemented additional restrictions to the categories of websites prohibited from government-furnished equipment."

An SSA employee who was granted anonymity to speak freely about their job told BI that there was a staff meeting on Thursday about the latest guidance. During the meeting, they said, employees voiced their concerns that the Microsoft web browser they use automatically reroutes certain homepages to news and sports links.

The employee said that a representative from SSA's headquarters said there should be no issues as long as workers did not "navigate" to a prohibited site.

"Not a comforting thing in this Bolshevik environment," the employee said.

This person added that SSA workers sometimes search online obituaries to "move things along quicker" to help verify information on beneficiaries. "In some cases, surviving family are eligible for benefits but we never receive official notice of death," they said.

This latest guidance "could mean claims being stuck in limbo," the employee said.

Thursday's email followed a notice sent to employees last week offering them voluntary early retirement as part of a "restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions." Five SSA workers told BI that the cuts could increase customer service wait times and delay payments for older Americans and those with disabilities who rely on Social Security benefits.

"Service to the public will undoubtedly suffer. We barely have enough staff now to meet the public's needs," one employee said.

Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration has terminated thousands of federal workers and outlined plans to restructure federal agencies as part of the DOGE office's goal, championed by Elon Musk, to slash government waste. The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo in late February asking all federal agencies to submit reorganization plans by March 13.

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• Linda McMahon was confirmed as Trump's education secretary on Monday.
• Shortly after her confirmation, she released a memo outlining her goals for the Department of Education.
• They include prioritizing private-school voucher programs and eliminating "divisive DEI" curricula.

President Donald Trump's newly confirmed education secretary is ready to carry out her boss' vision of eliminating her own department.

After being confirmed on Monday night, Linda McMahon published a memo outlining her goals for the Department of Education. She framed her goals as the department's "final mission" to reshape education in the US, saying that coming changes will "profoundly impact" the agency's operations.

"Removing red tape and bureaucratic barriers will empower parents to make the best educational choices for their children," McMahon said. "An effective transfer of educational oversight to the states will mean more autonomy for local communities. Teachers, too, will benefit from less micromanagement in the classroom—enabling them to get back to basics."

McMahon highlighted three goals for restructuring the Department of Education:

1. Ensure parents are the "primary decision makers" in their kids' education.
2. Focus public education on math, reading, science, and history, and not "divisive DEI programs and gender ideology."
3. Establish postsecondary education as a path to well-paying careers that meet the demands of the workforce.

These follow Trump's executive orders related to education in January. One focused on expanding school voucher programs, partly by redirecting federal funds from public to private schools, while the other prioritized "patriotic education" in public classrooms to eliminate curriculum that doesn't align with the president's politics.

McMahon's first goal is to expand parents' roles in their children's education by providing them with publicly funded vouchers to use at private institutions, which has long been a priority for Trump and Republican lawmakers. Trump's plan to reallocate federal block grants meant to boost underfunded schools to private-school vouchers would take it a step further, education policy experts have told BI. The administration would likely have to go through Congress to implement those changes.

McMahon's focus on math, reading, science, and history is also in alignment with Trump's executive orders. One of them proposed diverting funds away from public schools that teach "gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology." The Trump administration recently cut $900 million in research contracts at the Education Department, and some department employees and education experts said that the cuts could hinder data collection on kids' math and reading progress.

McMahon's memo did not elaborate on her third goal for higher education. She said during her confirmation hearing that she would preserve programs enshrined in law, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. She also wrote a September opinion piece in The Hill expressing support for expanding Pell Grant eligibility to workforce training programs, not just college degree programs.

Trump and Republican lawmakers have criticized broad student-loan forgiveness and former President Joe Biden's key repayment plan, which allowed for cheaper payments. Continuing those efforts is not likely to be prioritized under McMahon.

It's still unclear how Trump's executive orders will be carried out. The orders asked McMahon and other agency heads to prepare guidance on implementing changes to the school system, and it's possible the guidance could end up being less proscriptive than Trump and McMahon's stated aims.

Jon Valant, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, previously told BI that even as schools await formal guidance from the department, some districts might prematurely consider McMahon and Trump's directives.

"People may interpret them as having more bite than they actually do," he said.

Trump has reiterated over the past few weeks that he wants to eliminate the Department of Education altogether. While McMahon said during her confirmation hearing that abolishing the agency would require an act of Congress, she told Democratic lawmakers in a recent letter that she "wholeheartedly" supports Trump's mission that "the bureaucracy in Washington should be abolished so that we can return education to the states."

Have a tip about the Department of Education or changes to the federal workforce? Contact this reporter via Signal at asheffey.97 or via email at [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• China retaliated with tariffs on American goods after Donald Trump doubled levies on Chinese goods.
• Canada also announced 25% retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
• Canada's Trudeau said that Americans will pay more for gas and groceries as a result.

Canada and China swiftly retaliated against new tariffs from the Trump administration on Tuesday.

After President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% to 20%, Beijing announced additional tariffs of 10% to 15% on some US imports starting March 10.

Canada also was prepared for a quick response; the country's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, released a statement on March 3 saying that if Trump's tariffs go into effect, Canada will place a 25% tariff on $155 billion of American goods until Trump's tariffs are withdrawn.

"Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs," Trudeau said. "Tariffs will disrupt an incredibly successful trading relationship. They will violate the very trade agreement that was negotiated by President Trump in his last term."

The retaliatory tariffs mark a new trade war under the Trump administration; Trump has vowed that his tariffs will remain in place until the countries he is targeting crack down on their drug and border policy, specifically surrounding the flow of fentanyl into the US.

"While President Trump gave both Canada and Mexico ample opportunity to curb the dangerous cartel activity and influx of lethal drugs flowing into our country, they have failed to adequately address the situation," the White House's fact sheet said.

Mexico's President, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Tuesday there was no justification for the US move and that would announce "tariff and non-tariff measures" on Sunday. Mexico was also hit with a 25% tariff from Trump.

The impact of Canada and China's retaliatory tariffs

China's retaliatory tariffs include 10% tariffs on US soybeans, pork, and beef imports and 15% tariffs on chicken and cotton imports, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Beijing also targeted American farm imports into China when US President Donald Trump started the trade war in his first term.

Trudeau's statement did not outline specific goods Canada's tariffs are targeting. However, Trudeau said in early February, following Trump's initial tariff announcement, that Canada's tariffs will impact a range of goods shipped from the US to Canada, including fruit, clothing, shows, and household appliances.

Beijing's speedy response on Tuesday — reminiscent of Beijing's swift response on February 4 against the US's first tranche of tariffs — is an indication that Xi Jinping's administration was prepared for the moves.

Markets in Asia were broadly lower early on Tuesday because of worries over the impact of the trade war. But losses were limited as investors were already prepared, analysts said.

China's measures also appeared contained, Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis, told Business Insider. He said Beijing stuck to its "playbook of retaliation," similar to the moves it used on February 4. Last month, the country announced tariffs on some US goods and imposed export controls and market access restrictions on select companies.

Some US companies are already preparing for price increases in response to the latest tariffs. Target CEO Brian Cornell told CNBC on Tuesday that the tariffs could lead the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables.

"Those are categories where we'll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days," Cornell said, adding: "If there's a 25% tariff, those prices will go up."

DeepSeek confidence is buoying China

China's markets have recently been supported by renewed interest in its tech stocks following DeepSeek's meteoric rise.

At a press briefing on Monday, Scott Kennedy, a China specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said China felt it was in a "much better position" than during Trump's first term in office. Because of significant tech advances, Beijing is not "desperate" for a Trump deal, he said.

"If they're going to reach a deal, they want it to benefit China and not just be a one-way list of concessions from Beijing to Washington," Kennedy said.

Trump is doubling down on tariffs just as Beijing holds its annual political meetings of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference known as "Two Sessions."

Investors are watching for signs that China will step up stimulus measures amid heightened trade tensions, a prolonged economic downturn at home, and weak domestic consumption.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang is expected on Wednesday to deliver the government work report that's set to detail top policy priorities and reveal China's 2025 GDP growth target.

• Trump's tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China are now in effect.
• The Trump administration is imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.
• Trump doubled the US's additional tariffs on China from 10% to 20%.

President Donald Trump's new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China are here.

Tariffs of 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico went into effect on Tuesday. Energy imports from Canada are subject to a lower 10% tariff.

Trump had initially announced tariffs on both countries in early February, but he reached a deal with the leaders of Mexico and Canada to delay the tariffs by a month.

Also on Tuesday, Trump doubled the tariff on goods from China from 10% to 20% in an effort to push for strengthened drug policy, particularly surrounding the flow of fentanyl into the US.

The president's initial executive order placing tariffs on the three countries said the tariffs would remain in place "until the crisis is alleviated," referring to border and drug policy.

US stocks were little moved in premarket trading, with futures underlying the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 almost flat, and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.2%. The three indexes had closed 1.5%, 1.8%, and 2.6% lower on Monday.

European stocks were broadly in the red as of 4:25 a.m. ET, with Germany's DAX index down 1.8%, France's CAC 40 down 1.1%, and the Euro Stoxx 50 down 1.6%. BMW shares fell 4.1%, Deutsche Bank shares fell 3.6%, and Siemens, Adidas, BASF, and Volkswagen were all down between 2% and 3%.

Responses from China, Mexico, and Canada

Beijing retaliated swiftly against Trump's additional tariffs, announcing that China will impose additional tariffs of 10% to 15% on some US imports starting March 10.

According to the Commerce Ministry, they include 10% tariffs on US soybeans, pork, and beef imports and 15% tariffs on chicken and cotton imports.

US farm imports into China were also targeted by Beijing when Trump started the trade war in his first term.

Beijing is also banning Illumina — a California-based biotech firm — from selling gene sequencing products in China to "safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests," the country's Commerce Ministry announced separately.

Beijing also added 10 US companies to a list of unreliable entities and imposed dual-use item export controls on 15 US entities.

Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said in a statement on Monday night that if the White House followed through, his administration would retaliate with 25% tariffs on $155 billion of US goods.

"Canada will not let this unjustified decision go unanswered," he said.

The statement said Ottawa plans to roll out the retaliatory measures over 21 days, with immediate tariffs on an initial $30 billion tranche of US goods. Trudeau added that his government is discussing other "non-tariff measures."

Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, said on Monday that she would wait to see the scale of the new tariffs before announcing any retaliation.

The US imports a range of key goods from Canada, Mexico, and China, including crude oil, car parts, and electronics. Some companies, like Walmart, have said they will raise prices if tariffs go into effect.

Trump wrote on Truth Social in February that Americans will feel "some pain" with tariffs, but "it will all be worth the price that must be paid."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Donald Trump on Monday said tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods are coming.
• The US previously worked out a pause with its neighbors but the time has run out, he said.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 848 points and the S&P 500 was down more than 2%.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that the White House will forge ahead with imposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

"No room left for Mexico or Canada," Trump told reporters during an unrelated White House event. "The tariffs are all set, they go into effect tomorrow."

Trump's comments deepened a sell-off in the stock market during Monday's trading session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped as much as 848 points and the benchmark S&P 500 was down more than 2%. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 3%, with the tech-heavy index extending its decline after a sharp drop in Nvidia stock during the day.

Earlier in the day, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had left the door open that the president might change his mind. Trump already paused the tariffs for a month based on both countries pledging to do more to stem illegal immigration.

Trump on Monday reiterated his view that the tariffs are punishment for Mexico and Canada for failing to do enough to prevent fentanyl from entering the US.

Both nations have already said how they would retaliate with their own tariffs. Canada published an extensive list of targeted American products, ranging from agricultural products to alcoholic beverages. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously called on his citizens to prepare to forgo American-made goods.

"It might mean checking the labels at the supermarket and picking Canadian-made products," Trudeau said last month. "It might mean opting for Canadian rye over Kentucky bourbon, or foregoing Florida orange juice altogether. It might mean changing your summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada."

The US imports a range of key goods from the two countries, including crude oil, car parts, and electronics, and trade policy experts previously told BI that new tariffs are likely to increase the prices of those goods.

Trump previously said that Americans would feel "some pain" with tariffs, but the price would be worth it in the end. Still, some companies have started to prepare for price increases caused by the tariffs. Real estate consultants previously told BI that Trump's 25% steel tariff will likely make rent and condo prices surge.

It's unclear how long these tariffs will last. Trump's initial executive order from February said that they would remain in effect until the affected countries cracked down on their drug and border policy.

• After a monthlong delay, Trump on Tuesday added tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
• Trump added to existing China tariffs, too.
• Here are the goods imported into the US the most from these three countries.

When evaluating how President Donald Trump's new tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico could affect Americans, start by looking at the goods imported most from those countries.

The biggest categories are oil, electronics, and vehicles.

After a delay in February, the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico went into effect Tuesday through an executive order. There's one big exception: Energy imports from Canada have a 10% tariff.

The president also doubled China tariffs to 20% as he continued to push for stronger drug policies, particularly to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US.

The White House's fact sheet on the latest tariffs said Trump would use emergency economic powers to implement these tariffs to crack down on drug trafficking. Both Canada and China have announced retaliatory tariffs on the US, and Mexico's president said she would announce on Sunday the country's next step on tariffs.

The tariffs could affect a wide variety of goods Americans use daily. The Census Bureau reported that in 2024, the US imported over $1.3 trillion in goods from China, Mexico, and Canada combined.

From Canada, the top 2024 imports included over $98 billion worth of crude oil and about $28 billion in passenger cars.

In 2024, the US imported nearly $67 billion worth of car parts from Mexico, along with $43 billion worth of computers, $14 billion worth of medicinal equipment, and $12 billion worth of crude oil.

China, meanwhile, is a major supplier of electronics to the US. The census data showed that in 2024, the US imported $64 billion worth of cellphones and other household goods from China, $34 billion in computers, and about $31 billion in games, toys, and sporting goods.

Some companies had already been preparing to increase prices as a result of Trump's tariff plans on the campaign trail. Real estate consultants previously told BI that Trump's trade plans, particularly his 25% tariffs on steel, were set to make rent and condo prices more expensive.

Target CEO Brian Cornell told CNBC on Tuesday that the tariffs could lead the company to raise prices on fruits and vegetables.

"Those are categories where we'll try to protect pricing, but the consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days," Cornell said, adding: "If there's a 25% tariff, those prices will go up."

Additionally, the levies could amplify economic strains between the US and its trading partners. China said Tuesday that it would impose additional tariffs of 10% to 15% on some US imports starting Monday.

Trudeau said in a statement on Monday that Americans would feel the pain from Trump's tariffs: "Because of the tariffs imposed by the U.S., Americans will pay more for groceries, gas, and cars, and potentially lose thousands of jobs."

Companies and economists have said that more tariffs would increase consumer prices. BI previously reported that broad tariffs were likely to increase prices across the board, including for clothes, footwear, computers, and video games.

Trump previously denied that would be the case. "I am going to put tariffs on other countries coming into our country, and that has nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country," Trump said in an August speech. But he told reporters in early February that Americans would experience "some pain" as a result of the tariffs, adding that they would overall benefit the country.

The tariffs implemented during Trump's first term did not significantly influence inflation, but his recently announced tariffs are broader and could have a larger impact on prices.

• Social Security Administration employees raised the alarm on Trump's plan to slash the agency's workforce.
• They warned that cuts to staff could delay payments for Social Security beneficiaries.
• The agency offered its employees early retirement in an effort to cut staff.

Delayed payments, longer wait times: Cuts to the Social Security Administration's workforce will have a detrimental effect on the benefits millions of Americans rely on every month, several agency employees said.

"Put bluntly, the ramifications of downsizing SSA are enormous," an agency employee told Business Insider. "Because it'll take two to three times longer to work these cases, some people will die before a decision is reached."

The Social Security Administration sent an email to employees on Thursday offering voluntary early retirements as part of a "restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions." One internal memo seen by BI on Friday listed two dozen senior staff who had already resigned.

BI spoke to five SSA employees who received the emails, granting them anonymity to speak freely about changes within their agency.

They said they're concerned that slashing the agency's workforce will hinder critical functions, including causing overpayments, increased call wait times, and potential payment delays for older Americans and those with disabilities who receive Social Security benefits.

These cuts are part of President Donald Trump and the DOGE office's larger goals to reduce government waste and slash the federal workforce. The administration has already terminated thousands of workers across a range of agencies. Elon Musk, who is leading DOGE, has criticized the Social Security system in a series of posts on X over the past week, calling out "significant inconsistencies" and saying, "No one person actually knows how it works."

SSA employees said that since the buyout offer targets workers nearing retirement age, the agency could suffer from losing its most experienced employees. "The institutional expertise is invaluable," one employee said. "We are overwhelmed with calls as it is."

SSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI on the impact slashing the workforce would have on the agency's functions.

The employees said that the agency is already strained to meet the public's needs, and cutting the workforce even more could significantly harm Social Security recipients. Already, the average processing time for disability and supplemental income benefits, known as SSDI and SSI, has more than doubled since fiscal year 2016 to 231 days — just over seven and a half months.

"Drastically cutting everybody and everything has the very real potential of erasing people's record of lifetime contributions and therefore their eligibility for benefits," an SSA employee said. "If they recklessly 'pulled the plug,' it would mean disaster to everyone currently collecting and future retirees and disabled claimants."

'We just want to help disabled Americans and retirees'

Over 73 million Americans receive Social Security benefits — a number that will continue rising as more baby boomers retire. The agency said in its FY2024 report that staffing had declined to one of its lowest levels in over 50 years, which it attributed to years of "chronic underfunding" even as the number of beneficiaries increased.

Phone call wait times for the agency have spiked since the fiscal year 2008, when callers would wait around four minutes to get through to the agency's 1-800 number. In fiscal year 2023, callers waited nearly 36 minutes — although SSA has made some progress in cutting down wait times. One SSA worker told BI that the areas the administration is looking to cut would directly impact customer service.

"The people who complain about long wait times and nobody answering the phone are talking about those entities," the worker said.

One agency staffer told BI that if the Trump administration follows through with cuts, "service to the public will undoubtedly suffer. We barely have enough staff now to meet the public's needs."

Another employee said that for as long as they had been at the agency, it was understaffed, and a larger cut to the workforce would mean that "overpayments to beneficiaries will drastically increase because there won't be enough workers to get to those cases in a timely manner." A July 2024 report by the Office of the Inspector General found that improper payments have accounted for under 1% of total SSA payouts between fiscal years 2015 and 2022. The employee said slashing the workforce could amplify the issue.

"People who can't work and are waiting on a disability decision will experience immense financial hardship," they said, adding that cases subject to re-evaluation "will not be worked quickly enough to prevent overpayments and there's never a guarantee the overpayment will actually be paid."

Kevin Foster, 64, receives over $3,000 a month. "I feel the pain for millions of recipients who aren't as lucky as I have been," the Illinois resident said. "Social Security must endure."

Sharon Sartori, 60, who receives $967 in benefits and lives in South Carolina said, "If checks are late, it's going to put a real strain on low-income seniors for rent, their medications, and food. Utilities could be shut off. It would be a mess."

It's unclear how many people will voluntarily resign following the SSA's latest email to staff. The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on February 26 requesting that all federal agencies develop reorganization plans by March 13.

One staffer speculated that "once service gets bad" at SSA following any cuts, "the case will be made to privatize us." For decades, some Republican politicians and lawmakers have floated privatizing Social Security in an effort to rein in the federal deficit, but the idea lacks mass support from voters.

The SSA employees BI spoke to overwhelmingly said that the millions of Americans who rely on Social Security benefits will feel the pain from any workforce cuts.

"We need the people higher up to support us and build systems that work, we need HR. We need those 'invisible' people to make sure checks get paid on time, all the systems are up and running," one employee said. They added: "I don't know why we are villains. We just want to help disabled Americans and retirees get what they paid for."

Have a tip about changes to the federal workforce? Contact these reporters via Signal at asheffey.97, aaltchek.19, julianakaplan.33, and tparadis.70 or via email at [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

Have a story to share about living on Social Security? Email [email protected].

• 8 million student-loam borrowers on the SAVE plan, intended to set cheaper monthly payments.
• The plan has been blocked since last summer and is unlikely to be revived.
• Some Trump-supporting borrowers said that they wished the administration would do more to stymy the financial strain.

Natasha Stephens voted for President Donald Trump, and she said she's overall happy with his work so far — except for his actions on student debt.

"It is disappointing that it feels like we're just getting left behind," Stephens, 35, told Business Insider. "It feels like they're just going to leave everybody to either pay it or suffer."

Stephens is enrolled in the SAVE plan, which a federal court recently paused pending a final court decision. It was established by former President Joe Biden in 2023 and intended to give student-loan borrowers cheaper monthly payments with a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness.

Under the SAVE plan, Stephens owed $0 monthly based on her income level. If SAVE goes away, she said she cannot afford higher payments while also financially supporting her two children.

"If we didn't have our family support helping us with the kids and food and stuff like that, we would not be making it every month," Stephens said. "We'd be losing our house and everything, so we can't even imagine to start paying on those loans yet."

BI heard from dozens of student-loan borrowers over the past few weeks who said they're worried about the SAVE plan being eliminated and are concerned with facing potentially higher monthly payments. While the legal fate of the plan is still in limbo, borrowers are stuck wondering when they'll have to resume repayment — and how much the bill will be.

Due to the legal challenges seeking to block the plan, January guidance from the Education Department said that borrowers enrolled in SAVE will make payments "no earlier" than December. Interest is not accruing on their balances during this time.

After the recent court decision keeping SAVE paused, acting undersecretary of education, James Bergeron, told BI in a statement that the ruling "is good news for hardworking American taxpayers and the rule of law."

"The Department of Education is currently working to ensure borrowers understand existing repayment alternatives allowed under the law," Bergeron said.

Stephens said she doesn't see it that way — and hopes the Trump administration prioritizes relief for student-loan borrowers.

"I think that it helped a lot of people," she said, referring to the SAVE plan, "and it's really heartbreaking that it just ended with nothing."

'It's going to be very scary'

Mike Rendino, 51, accrued student debt in his 30s when he went back to school to advance his career. When his job relocated and he couldn't move, he found himself out of work and deferred his loans. But interest continued to accumulate during those few years.

Enrolling in SAVE allowed Rendino to pay $160 each month — which he felt was affordable. Now, however, he no longer feels confident with his payoff plan, which he said is projected to be just under $1,000 a month without SAVE.

"It's going to be very scary to figure this out," Rendino said.

"This program is literally allowing me to fulfill my financial obligations back to the government for those federal loans," he said, adding that "it's not that I don't want to repay it, it's that I just cannot afford to pay the kind of money that they want."

Brigitte Knudson, 56, is also struggling with SAVE's uncertain fate. While Knudson said she's still been making payments during this time to take advantage of the 0% interest rate, she's prepared to push off her retirement to afford potentially higher monthly payments.

"Every extra dollar that I get is going to pay down this loan because I know there's going to be no forgiveness," Knudson said. "Just tell me what the bottom line is, and I can plan for that."

The GOP plan for student-loan borrowers

If a court ends up permanently striking down the SAVE plan, it's unlikely the Trump administration will create something similar to replace it. That's because Republicans have argued that SAVE is an overreach of the education secretary's authority by allowing for expanded opportunities for relief.

Rather, some Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to streamline income-driven repayment plans. GOP control over both Congress and the White House could ease that legislation into passage.

A memo compiled by House Republicans in January suggested repealing SAVE and proposed other measures like expanding the Pell Grant for low-income students and providing more options for borrowers who default on their loans.

The College Cost Reduction Act, introduced by Rep. Virginia Foxx, proposed capping certain forms of financial aid and limiting the education secretary's ability to implement new repayment and relief plans, like SAVE, in the future.

Some borrowers enrolled in SAVE, though, are concerned those alternatives would not be sufficient. Rendino, an independent voter who said he previously supported some Republican policies, said the way the GOP has approached student-loan issues may be enough to turn him away from the party altogether — especially if SAVE ultimately gets struck down.

"This is crucial to be able to have affordable payments like this for the foreseeable future," Rendinso said. "It's the only way a lot of us are going to survive and be able to keep the economy going."

Do you have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• The Trump Administration's OPM emailed federal workers again requesting a list of accomplishments.
• The latest email tells employees to expect to complete a productivity summary weekly going forward.
• Federal workers who shared the email with BI said the doubling down is "nuts" and "infuriating."

Federal workers across agencies are once again getting emails asking them to detail what they did this past week.

The second email, received by federal employees Friday night, promises weekly check-ins going forward. Elon Musk, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump who is closely tied to the White House DOGE office, hinted that this was coming after doubling down on the email check-ins this week.

"Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets describing what you accomplished last week and cc your manager," the email, reviewed by Business Insider, reads. "Going forward, please complete the above task each week by Mondays at 11:59pmET."

Federal workers from agencies including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs received the email from the Office of Personnel Management around 9 p.m. ET Friday night.

Representatives for the White House and the Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

"Nuts. They did it again," one Department of Education employee told Business Insider upon receiving the email.

Federal workers who have spoken to Business Insider have expressed frustration over the emails from OPM, which circumvent each office's chain of command and are sent during late or weekend hours.

The heads of various agencies have offered differing guidance regarding how their employees should respond, with at least eight offices, including the Department of Defense and the State Department, previously telling workers they don't have to respond to DOGE's emails.

On Monday, Musk said that employees who had not yet responded to the email would be given "another chance," but "failure to respond a second time will result in termination."

Less than half of the federal workforce responded to the first email, the White House said Tuesday.

The productivity-tracking emails, first sent on the afternoon of February 22 from an HR account in the Office of Personnel Management, followed President Donald Trump's request that Musk "get more aggressive" with DOGE's budget cuts and layoffs. The emails are among the latest of the office's sweeping initiatives that have resulted in mass firings, funding pauses, and work stoppages in departments and agencies across the federal government.

Musk had teased that the emails would be coming in a post on X, writing: "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," but the emails received by employees have not detailed any potential consequences for failing to reply by the deadline. The email sent Friday night also made no mention of those consequences.

The email has two key differences from the one sent last weekend: It makes clear the request for accomplishments will be ongoing, and stipulates that employees working with sensitive information do not need to respond with specific tasks.

"If all of your activities are classified or sensitive, please write 'All of my activities are sensitive,'" the Friday email reads.

One nurse who works with the Department of Veterans Affairs told Business Insider said the emails are "infuriating," adding that they'd responded to the last one after installing a read receipt tracker on their emails. Their initial response still hasn't even been opened, they said.

"They're such cowards," the nurse said. "Nobody has the guts to sign their name to this, and we're expected to respond to some faceless entity like we're shouting into a void. It's not coming from my supervisor or anyone in my actual chain of command, just another generic 'HR' email with no accountability."

Other federal employees who previously spoke to Business Insider said they were considering quitting rather than dealing with the emails and conflicting guidance about how to respond to them.

The Department of Education employee said they are looking for a new job, but have been struggling to find work since so many federal employees are recently out of work in the area where they live. As a single parent with dual citizenship, the Department of Education employee said they are considering moving abroad with their children.

Earlier Friday, Department of Education employees received a buyout offer "in advance of a very significant Reduction in Force," according to an email reviewed by Business Insider. Employees who have worked at the department for at least 3 years were offered $25,000 in addition to any retirement funds they are eligible for. Interested employees have until 11:59pm ET on March 3 to accept the offer.

And on Thursday, a memo seen by Business Insider was sent to employees in the Social Security Administration offering voluntary early retirements as part of a "restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions."

President Donald Trump's administration officially announced its plan for federal staff reductions in a Wednesday memo, telling agencies to prepare to cut staff and reorganize their departments by March 13.

The Department of Education employee said they would "probably not" take the buyout offer, adding that "it's crazy to give people just the weekend to think it over."

"I don't trust anything these people do," the Department of Education employee told BI.

Have a tip? Contact Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert via email at [email protected] or Signal at byktl.50. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

• Trump's Education Department removed online applications for income-driven student-loan repayment plans.
• The move was in response to a federal court upholding a pause on the SAVE plan.
• This means that borrowers cannot access plans intended to give them more affordable monthly payments.

Student-loan borrowers lost access to online applications for repayment plans meant to allow for affordable monthly payments.

In response to a federal court ruling that upheld a preliminary injunction on the SAVE student-loan repayment plan, President Donald Trump's Education Department removed online income-driven repayment applications from Federal Student Aid's website.

A three-sentence notice on FSA's website stated: "A federal court issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans. As a result, the IDR and online loan consolidation applications are temporarily unavailable. Borrowers can still submit a paper loan consolidation application."

Income-driven repayment plans, established by Congress in 1993, give borrowers monthly payments intended to be affordable based on the income they receive. After 20 or 25 years of payments, the plans allow for forgiveness of borrowers' remaining balances. Many borrowers seeking relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness plan, which cancels student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments, used income-driven repayment plans.

The remaining available repayment plans include the standard 10-year repayment plans, which typically have the highest monthly payments.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the impact of the application pause and what borrowers should do in the meantime.

The removal of the income-driven repayment plan applications follows a tumultuous legal battle surrounding former President Joe Biden's SAVE plan. The plan was intended to give borrowers cheaper monthly payments with a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness.

A group of GOP-led states filed a lawsuit last summer to block the plan, and 8 million enrolled borrowers have been in an interest-free forbearance since then as the legal process continues. A federal court most recently upheld a pause on the plan, sending it back to a district court to issue a final ruling.

Guidance from the Education Department on January 15 said that borrowers enrolled in SAVE will not have to make payments until December at the earliest while student-loan servicers update payment plans for impacted borrowers.

Persis Yu, deputy executive director and managing counsel at the advocacy group Student Borrower Protection Center, said in a statement that "shutting down access to all income-based repayment plans is not what the 8th Circuit ordered."

"This was a choice by the Trump Administration and a cruel one that will inflict massive pain on millions of working families," Yu said.

Do you have a story to share about student loans? Contact this reporter at [email protected].

• In a Wednesday memo, Trump administration officials advanced a plan for federal staff reductions.
• The memo said departments across agencies should prepare to cut staff and reorganize by March 13.
• Federal workers told BI they were frustrated but not surprised by the planned restructuring.

President Donald Trump's administration officially announced its plan for federal staff reductions in a Wednesday memo, telling agencies to prepare to cut staff and reorganize their departments by March 13.

Federal workers who spoke with Business Insider after the memo was announced said the move was "crazy and illogical." Still, some were determined to continue working until they were removed from office.

The memo, sent by the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management, didn't identify specific targets for cutbacks, which they described as advancing the White House DOGE office efficiency initiatives. But during a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump suggested as an example that as much as 65% of staff at the Environmental Protection Agency could be cut.

"As outlined in yesterday's memo to agencies, this administration has created a thoughtful, phased process to carry out workforce restructuring that will reduce unnecessary waste and bloat while continuing to deliver high-quality services to the American people," an OPM spokesperson said in a statement.

Representatives for the White House and OMB didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from BI.

"I think what is going on is unfair to us. I have been told my job is exempt, but I truly don't believe it," an employee from the Department of Veterans Affairs said. "I know that we are shorthanded but also don't trust the government or my supervisors here. I have seen nothing in writing. That scares me also."

One NASA employee described it as "ungenerous to the point of cruelty."

"Not only do they want people to lose their jobs, they want them to lose their jobs quickly," they said.

Another longtime federal worker, meanwhile, told BI they had "no faith that this will be fair or measured."

The memo outlines a timeline for most agencies — with exemptions for federal law enforcement, military, border security, and US Postal Service employees — to prepare and execute a layoff and reorganization strategy. Agencies must submit their restructuring plans by March 13 and "outline a positive vision for more productive, efficient agency operations" by April 14, with an implementation deadline in September.

"My thought is, "Will I be out of a job come April?" one Department of Defense employee said. "At this point, conversations revolve around, if I exit the workforce, will I reenter it? As a military spouse, that is not a given."

"Throwing military families into financially unstable situations is a great way to thank them for their service — and their votes," the employee added.

The memo also requires field office operations to be consolidated or closed, which one employee of the Social Security Administration said would impact frontline offices that handle claims and issue Social Security cards, as well as disability hearing offices that handle appeals of unfavorable decisions in disability cases.

"So, the people who complain about long wait times and nobody answering the phone are talking about those entities, maybe there are a lot of layers of bureaucracy above us, but those exist to provide support for us frontline people," the Social Security Administration employee said. "This is crazy and illogical, motivated by a blind, stupid hatred of the public sector as a whole."

An Internal Revenue Service employee told BI that "it will take years, if not decades, to fully recover" from the federal government cuts.

"Americans are going to feel this very deeply," they said. "Services are going to be nonexistent."

An employee from the Department of Housing and Urban Development said they were prepared to be moved to a different department after a meeting with their supervisor about the memo.

"There's so much confusion — respond to the productivity email, don't respond, and now being told to get ready to move departments — I see how this Elon tactic can mentally drain you because this week was so hard to log in and be productive," the HUD worker said.

The restructuring memo came just days after the White House DOGE office sent a weekend email asking all federal employees to list what work tasks they had accomplished last week, prompting confusion among some employees about how and whether to reply outside their chain of command.

While some federal workers who previously spoke with BI said the confusion created by the emails and subsequent conflicting guidance from department heads had caused them to reconsider their work in the government, others said they were resolved to stick it out.

"I've never seen morale so low in my 18 years of service," an employee from the Bureau of Reclamation said, adding that they "believe we are witnessing the final days" of their agency.

Still, they said they saw their department's work protecting water resources as essential for the country and had no plans of stopping unless they were forced out of public service.

"They'll have to fire me," they said.

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