With the President's action, announced in a memorandum issued on May 16, 2000, to the heads of executive departments and agencies, employees affected by the Los Alamos fires may be excused from duty "without charge to leave or loss of pay" if faced with a personal emergency and who "can be spared from their usual responsibilities."

In addition, the time-off policy also applies to employees who provide emergency law enforcement, relief or clean-up services authorized by federal, state or local officials.

"The President's decision to give employees time off will help our colleagues heal from their personal losses, and rebuild their own lives and the lives of their families," said Janice R. Lachance, Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. "The emotional trauma they have suffered from this terrible disaster, and their feelings of devastation due to the loss of family and personal belongings, requires nothing less than this compassionate policy."

The President's memorandum also authorizes Lachance to determine the necessity of an emergency leave transfer program that would allow Executive Branch employees to transfer some of their unused annual leave to employees who are adversely affected by the fires and who need additional time off for recovery. The leave transfer program allows for interagency leave donations, making it possible for employees in one agency to donate leave to employees in other agencies.

Other natural disasters have prompted similar White House authorizations. Most recently, President Clinton announced a time-off policy following Hurricane Floyd in September 1999.