The White House issued an executive order Thursday closing federal agencies and offices the day before Christmas (Christmas Eve) and giving a day off for most federal employees.
“All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, the day before Christmas Day,” the Executive Order stated.
According to the order, “The heads of executive departments and agencies may determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must report for duty on December 24, 2024, for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need.”
While Christmas Day, December 25, is a holiday, December 24 is not. There has been a long history of presidents providing an extra day off during the holiday week. For example, during his first term in office, President-elect Donald Trump, gave federal employees an extra day off for Christmas Eve in 2020, 2019 and 2018.
In a memo, the Office of Personnel Management stated:
“Most employees who are excused from duty on December 24th will receive the basic pay they would have received if no Executive order had been issued. An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave on December 24th will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for his or her scheduled workday.
An employee who is required to work nonovertime hours on December 24th is entitled to holiday premium pay under 5 U.S.C. 5546(b). (This paragraph does not apply to employees who receive annual premium pay for standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1) or to firefighters who are covered by the special pay provisions of 5 U.S.C. 5545b.)”
To read the full text of the Executive Order, go here.