Employees were told to leave the department's Washington, D.C., headquarters ahead of the layoffs and one-day building closure.

If the department does fully shut down, student loans are not going away. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that the agency will continue to deliver funding mandated by law, which includes federal student loans. Trump said they would most likely be overseen by a different federal agency.

The sweeping cuts may bring an end to data collection the federal government has conducted for decades, denying Americans the ability to know how their schools are doing.