A Government Accountability Office report found the Education Department spent up to $38 million paying Office for Civil Rights employees who were placed on administrative leave during 2025 reduction‑in‑force actions. The GAO said the department dismissed a large share of complaints while documentation for the cost‑benefit analysis of the RIFs was missing or oral only. The GAO flagged more than 9,000 complaints received while many OCR staff were on leave and found that roughly 70–90% of those cases were dismissed, depending on the timeframe cited. Education Department actions included rescinding or pausing layoffs after litigation and selectively restoring staff, leaving uncertainty about how many employees returned to work. GAO investigators concluded Education lacked reasonable assurance that the RIFs achieved stated efficiency goals and could not document analyses of costs and savings as required by federal guidance. The findings raise questions about federal civil‑rights enforcement capacity and the downstream impact on campus investigations and protections.