As the Nation mourns the loss of President Ronald Reagan, President George W. Bush has taken official action to allow Federal employees to join their fellow citizens in remembering our fortieth President of the United States. The President has today issued the attached Executive order to close Federal offices and excuse all Federal employees from duty for the scheduled workday on Friday, June 11, 2004, 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.
As President Bush stated in the attached proclamation earlier today, "Ronald Reagan renewed America's confidence and restored our Nation. His optimism, strength, and humility epitomized the American spirit. He always told us that for America the best was yet to come."
President Reagan placed America back on the world stage, rebuilt our military capacity and defeated the Soviet Communist empire. Today, thanks to the leadership of President Reagan, millions of free people around the world join Americans in practicing intellectual freedom, open expression, and freedom to worship that had been denied them for decades.
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 June 11, 2004, 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.)
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.
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
Attachments