President George W. Bush has authorized OPM to establish, if needed, an emergency leave transfer program to assist employees affected by Hurricane Katrina. An emergency leave transfer program will permit employees in an executive agency to donate unused annual leave for transfer to employees of the same or other agencies who are adversely affected by the hurricane and who need additional time off from work without having to use their own paid leave.

We believe the agencies with employees affected by Hurricane Katrina are in the best position to determine whether, and how much, donated annual leave is needed by their employees and to quickly facilitate the transfer of donated annual leave within their agencies.

Therefore, in response to the President's directive, we are authorizing the affected agencies to do the following:

(1) Determine whether, and how much, donated annual leave is needed by affected employees;

(2) As appropriate, approve leave donors and/or leave recipients in their agencies;

(3) Facilitate the distribution of donated annual leave from approved leave donors to approved leave recipients within their agencies; and

(4) Determine the period of time for which donated annual leave may be accepted for distribution to approved leave recipients.

OPM's regulations on the administration of the emergency leave transfer program are available on OPM's Web site at http://www.opm.gov/fedregis/html/dec_99.htm. Additional guidance is available at http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/HTML/emerg.htm.

Most affected employees will be granted excused absence or receive other payments to cope with the immediate emergency. The emergency leave transfer program will be in place to assist approved leave recipients as the need for donated leave becomes known.