Education Department staff warned that Trump buyout offers could be canceled at any time

The Education Department's new chief of staff and chief human capital officer told staff Wednesday that if they accept the Trump administration’s deferred resignation package, the education secretary may later cancel it.

The offer is part of a plan to get as many as 10% of the workforce to quit as part of the plan to shrink the federal bureaucracy.

More than 40,000 people have taken the buyout offer so far, a White House official says.

Education Department staff will also need to come into the office daily by Feb. 24 . Clay told staff that department leadership is working to find another federal building for remote employees to work from within 50 miles of their home. Trump has said he wants to eliminate the Education Department , which would fulfill a longtime dream of the Republican base, but is supposed to take an act of Congress to achieve. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the White House is weighing executive action that could dismantle the department in a piecemeal fashion, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. This article was originally published on NBCNews.com .