Dept. of Education headquarters being relocated amid dismantling of agency
The Department of Education will continue winding down this summer -- announcing on Thursday that it’s shifting hundreds of its employees to a different federal building in Washington, D.C., to make room for Department of Energy employees.
When the Education Department employees reposition, Department of Energy staffers will move into the agency's decades-old building, according to a release from the agencies.
“The Trump Administration has successfully decreased the scope of the federal education bureaucracy, so much that the headquarters building is no longer needed,” according to the fact sheet accompanying the release.
The Education Department stressed it will continue to save taxpayers nearly $5 million in “operating costs,” as its main building is 70% vacant.
The announcement was sent to Education Department employees shortly before it was made public, sources confirmed to ABC News.
The agency said there is no impact on staff at this time, but some current education department staffers who spoke with ABC News described the move as puzzling and said it will further cause disruption.
“Employees see this as nothing more than continued efforts to keep us afraid and uncertain -- always on alert, waiting for the next shoe to drop,” an Education Department employee told ABC.
Another employee told ABC News that they’re under considerable stress as “the administration is attempting to eliminate the department through any means possible.”
The General Services Administration is also partnering with Education and Energy for this move, according to the release. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the Energy Department staffers will benefit “far more” from the space than the Department of Education.
“This is an important step in our efforts to forge brighter futures for our nation’s students, honor the taxpayers who invest in their promise, and support the civil servants who keep this vital work moving forward,” McMahon wrote in a statement.
House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott called Thursday’s announcement an overt action by McMahon to dismantle her agency.
“Leaving the Lyndon B. Johnson headquarters building does not cut bureaucracy -- it rearranges it,” Scott wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“This decision to close the Department’s physical building is not just a symbolic move -- it reflects a broader effort to reduce the federal government’s role in ensuring people have equal access to a quality education.”
Meanwhile, in August, Education Department employees will move to a building just steps away that was once occupied by the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to the release.
Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, decried the announcement that moves hundreds of employees from its “recently renovated" headquarters.
“The message the Secretary’s announcement sends to our staff and the American public is clear -- education is next on the chopping block,” Gittleman wrote in a statement.
McMahon was tapped by President Donald Trump to put herself out of a job and shutter the Department completely. She reduced her department’s workforce by over 40% in 2025 -- from roughly 4,000 down to 2100 -- according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
The Education Department and USAID were the two federal agencies that received the steepest percentage of job cuts last year, according to Pew.
Established in 1980, the Education Department is the smallest Cabinet-level agency. In her first year as secretary, McMahon announced a series of changes to gut the department, including firing nearly half of her staff and offloading responsibilities to other federal departments through Interagency Agreements.
Her latest moves include sending the nearly $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury Department through a multi-phase process to procure the federal student aid services in March.
