Up First from NPR - Ukraine Ceasefire Talks, Education Department Layoffs, Spending Bill

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

The U.S. is resuming military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after negotiators agree to a 30-day ceasefire, which Russia is now reviewing. The Trump administration is cutting nearly half of the Education Department's workforce. And, the House passes a stopgap funding bill with just days until a potential government shutdown, now it's headed for a vote in the Senate.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Nicole Cohen, Jason Breslow, Alice Woelfle and Mohamad ElBardicy.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Damian Herring, our technical director is Stacey Abbott.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Ukraine agrees to terms for a 30-day ceasefire and the U.S. is back to sending weapons and intelligence. And that's effective immediately. Will Russia agree to the deal and what's it mean for ending the war if they don't? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Amy Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. The education department is slashing nearly half of its staff. Not only are we concerned about how we will now pay our bills, but what impact this is going to have to the American public.

Family, too, have students with special needs. What happens when the agency meant to support quality and fairness in education loses so many of its workers? And Congress has just days to avoid a government shutdown. The House passed a stopgap bill, but will the Senate get on board? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies. Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut. With WISE, you can convert between up to 40 currencies at the mid-market exchange rate.

Visit WISE.com. TNCs apply. Support for NPR and the following message come from Bowlin Branch. Change your sleep with Bowlin Branch's Aerie blankets, cloud-like duvets, and breathable sheets. Feel the difference with 15% off your first order at BolinBranch.com with code NPR. Exclusions apply. See site for details. After nine hours of talks in Saudi Arabia, Ukrainian and American delegations announced an agreement on a 30-day ceasefire last night. This comes less than two weeks after a string of harsh words by President Trump directed at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky culminated in an Oval Office blow-up between the two and the impression that the new administration was taking Russia's side.

Now though the pressure is on Russia to accept the American-Ukrainian deal. We go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley who is in Kyiv. So Eleanor, 30 days, what does that buy Ukraine? Well, A, that buys them peace, space and calm to begin real talks about a long-term peace. It would include the cessation of all shooting — bombs, missiles, drones on the Black Sea, the front line, and in Ukraine's cities, of course. And the Trump administration announced it is resuming the sharing of intelligence and delivery of military supplies, which it had temporarily paused. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the ball is now in Russia's court. Ukraine is ready to stop shooting and start talking,

and now it will be up to them to say yes or no. I hope they're going to say yes, and if they do, then I think we've made great progress. If they say no, then we'll unfortunately know what the impediment is to peace here. So that's an incredible statement, A, less than two weeks after the Trump administration seemed to blame Ukraine for not wanting peace. Yeah, how are Ukrainians reacting to this? Well President Volodymyr Zelensky took to social media immediately to herald the agreement. Here he is speaking.

He said, the American side understands our arguments, accepts our proposals, and I want to thank President Trump for the constructive conversation between our teams. So again, a complete turnaround for Zelensky from that disastrous Oval Office meeting. And as for resuming the intelligence, you know, cutting that off was seen as a real low blow to Ukrainians. I arrived in Kiev last night just as the news of the deal and the renewed intel sharing was breaking, and I spoke to 35-year-old Dima Suhak. Here he is.

I think that's great. We need this information for sure. And how did you feel when it was stopped? I feel disgusted. Less safe. I don't know if you heard his friend, but she said they felt less safe because satellite intelligence not only helped on the battlefield, but it helped Ukraine defend its cities by giving advanced warning of high-speed Russian missiles. And having lay in bed last night on my first night in Kiev to air raid sirens

and then the explosions of drones being shot down over the city, I can tell you it's nerve-racking. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now that meeting in Saudi Arabia was between Ukraine and the U.S. Now what? Now the U.S. delegation is set to meet with the Russians. There's been no official reaction from Moscow yet. I spoke with Samuel Sharap, who is a Russia specialist at the think tank, the Rand Corporation, and he says the onus is now on the Russians to accept something or perhaps face Trump's ire. But Sharap says, surprisingly, there is common ground between the Russians

and Ukrainians. What Russia interestingly has in common with the Ukrainian position again is that they too want to ensure that this isn't a temporary pause, that whatever agreement they reach actually ends the war in a way that they're not facing a renewed Ukrainian attempt to retake Ukraine's territory in the future. So he says this means both sides will be ready to prioritize the broader issues to lead to a longer peace. He says no one has won this war and both sides will have to compromise. MPR's Eleanor Beardsley in Kyiv. Eleanor, thank you. You're welcome, A.

Last night, the Trump administration announced it's cutting nearly half of all staff at the U.S. Department of Education. Shortly after, many of those employees started receiving emails letting them know they would soon be losing their jobs. NPR education reporter Janaki Mehta has been hearing from some of those staffers. So let's just start with the scale of these layoffs and what parts of the agency were affected. Yeah, so the announcement that came from the Department of Education Tuesday night said

the agency was cutting nearly 50% of its staff and that number includes some of the people who've already taken voluntary buyouts or decided to retire. And in that statement, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said these cuts reflect the department's, quote, commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most to students, parents, and teachers. And the announcement clearly said all divisions of the agency will be impacted. The Department of Ed sent union leaders a list of employees who would be laid off and the union shared that list with NPR.

The cuts are certainly wide ranging, hundreds of employees from the federal student aid office, just under 250 employees from the Office of Civil Rights and another 100 plus from the Institute of Education Sciences, which was already gutted by other federal cuts a few weeks ago and many other parts of the agency were reflected in that list too. All right, now you've been in touch with some of the staffers who are being laid off, what have they been saying?

Yeah, I heard from multiple employees who were notified yesterday that they will be laid off in coming days. Sharia Smith is an attorney at the Department of Ed's Office for Civil Rights. She's also president of AFGE Local 252, which is a union that represents at department employees. And Smith, along with all five of the other union officers in her chapter, were told Tuesday that they're being laid off. Not only are we concerned about how we will now pay our bills,

but what impact this is going to have to the American public, families who have students with special needs. What they've just done today is fire hundreds of the employees that would be enforcing those rights. So the Office for Civil Rights for Smith works is responsible for making sure students aren't being discriminated against at school and that includes students with disabilities. Now I know this news is pretty fresh, but do we know if these cuts are even legal? I mean, aren't some of these education department offices protected by law?

Yes, they are. So for example, the Institute of Education Sciences or IES does research on all kinds of topics related to American education. It has a bunch of sub-branches that were established in laws passed by Congress as well. But I saw a termination email for an employee of one of those sub-branches that I'm talking about that clearly states that their entire unit is being quote, abolished. Whether or not that's legal is not clear yet. Say like if the Ed Department has retained at least some of the employees at these offices that are protected

by law, they could be leaving the door open to say that office hasn't completely been shut down. Kenneth Wong is a professor of education policy at Brown University. And here's what he said. Now, the executive branch can argue that they are partially implementing the law, and they would probably argue that there is no longer a need for the personnel to fulfill these functions. So, Wong says that will ultimately be up to Congress and probably the courts to decide. All right, that's NPR Education Reporter, Janaki Mehta, thanks a lot. Thank you, A.

The clock is ticking in Washington on a potential government shutdown. Funding for federal agencies expires Friday at midnight. Leaving the Senate with less than 72 hours to pass a stopgap spending plan. The Republican plan passed the House yesterday. Here is Speaker Mike Johnson after the vote. It falls on the desk of Chuck Schumer. He is the leader of the Democrats on that side and he must determine whether he wants to fund the government, do the responsible thing,

or whether he wants to shut the government down. NPR's congressional correspondent is Claudia Grisales. So Claudia, let's start with that stopgap plan that passed the House, what to do? Right, it extends a current stopgap spending plan through the end of the fiscal year, so through September at lower 2024 levels. This in particular was key to keeping hardline members

on board for these forced cuts that we would see in some cases. It's a feature of these kinds of stopgap bills, also known as continuing resolutions, to keep spending flat. But it's also a rarity to see Congress to fund the government this way for an entire year. Traditionally, we see them pass a full year appropriations plan, but bipartisan negotiations failed to come together in time, so Republicans turned to this partisan plan instead. Yeah, when it comes to spending, Republicans have tended to disagree on a few things or maybe a lot of things. How do they get

this across the finish line? Right, historically we've seen hardline members of the conference always vote no, but in this case they were yes. Some for the first time voting yes on a plan like this. It says a lot about the influence of president Trump, for example, hours before the vote, Trump said he would lead an effort to have a member of the conference. This is Kentucky Republican Thomas Massey primaried because he was the lone no vote for the party in the House. And this happened again just before the vote and within that same window we saw a handful of holdouts fall in line who were

undecided and vote yes. All right as Speaker Johnson said it now goes to the Senate, Republican-led Senate. Can they get this thing passed before that Friday deadline. Maybe but it could be very close. In this case, they're going to need Democrats to get this done. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, like Speaker Johnson, they're putting the heat on Democrats to get on board or be responsible for a government shutdown. As you all know, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill. So we're going to need some Democrats to vote for it. And Republicans control just a slim majority in the Senate, and that's 53 seats.

They're going to need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster, so they hope to get Democrats to hit that threshold. We know one Republican, Kentucky Republican, Rand Paul, says he's a no vote, while one Democrat, John Federmanman is signaled he will be the first to join the GOP to get this passed. So seven or more Democrats to vote yes. What are Democrats saying? Well, they wanted a plan that would put limits on Trump's ability to make cuts and dismantle

the federal government. But House Democrats, while they largely held on this together to vote no, that's not as clear for Senate Democrats. They were not forthcoming yesterday in most cases on how they would vote. And that happened in the case for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who was asked several times about this but would not say what the plan was.

So we know they're facing pressure from both sides and they don't wanna be blamed for a government shutdown. So it's going to be a big unity test for Democrats. All right. That's NPR's congressional correspondent, Claudia Grisales. Thanks a lot. Thank you. And before we go, a quick update on trade. President Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum are now in effect. 25% on all imports, no exceptions. That means higher costs for American businesses that rely on those metals.

Automakers, construction, energy companies, and possibly higher prices for consumers. And now the EU is hitting back with tariffs of their own. Starting April 1st, the European Bloc will target $28 billion worth of American goods from steel to food and home appliances. For more on this, follow Morning Edition on your local NPR station or stream us anytime on the NPR app. And that's a first for Wednesday, March 12th. I'm Am. Martinez.

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