As the Nation mourns the loss of President Gerald R. Ford, President George W. Bush has taken official action to allow Federal employees to join their fellow citizens in remembering our thirty-eighth President of the United States.  The President has issued the attached Executive order to close Federal offices and excuse all Federal employees from duty for the scheduled workday on January 2, 2007, except those who, in the judgment of the head of the agency, cannot be excused for reasons of national security, defense, or other essential public business.

For pay and leave purposes, this period of time will be treated as falling within the scope of statutes and Executive orders governing holidays.  Most employees who are excused from duty as a result of the President's Executive order 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 January 2, 2007, will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for that day.  (This policy 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.)

If an employee has scheduled use or lose annual leave for January 2, 2007, and is unable to reschedule that leave for use before the end of the leave year (i.e., January 6, 2007, for most employees), the leave will be forfeited.  When use or lose leave is forfeited under these conditions, there is no authority that permits restoration of the leave.

For general pay and leave administration instructions, please refer to our fact sheets on:

"Federal Holidays--Work Schedules and Pay" http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/HOLIDAY.asp,
"Compressed Work Schedules" http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/AWScws.asp, and
"Flexible Work Schedules"  http://www.opm.gov/oca/worksch/HTML/awsfws.asp.

The President's Executive order excuses Federal employees from duty during a pay period in which multiple holidays fall within the same pay period.  For further information on the procedures for multiple holidays during a pay period, see Pay and Leave Procedures for Two Holidays—Christmas Day, 2006, and New Year's Day, 2007, CPM-2006-14, November 21, 2006, at http://www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2006/2006-14.asp.

Employees of the U.S. Postal Service and contract employees should contact their supervisor (or contract officer) to obtain information on their pay and leave entitlements.

cc: Chief Human Capital Officers
      Directors of Human Resources

Attachment – Executive Order [16 KB]