Executive Order 13109

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. All executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty for the last half of the scheduled workday on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1998, except as provided in section 2 below.

Sec. 2. 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 remain on duty for the full scheduled workday on December 24, 1998, for reasons of national security or defense or for other essential public reasons.

Sec. 3. Thursday, December 24, 1998, shall be considered as falling within the scope of Executive Order 11582 and of 5 U.S.C. 5546 and 6103(b) and other similar statutes insofar as they relate to the pay and leave of employees of the United States.

Sec. 4. This order shall apply to executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government only and is not intended to direct or otherwise implicate departments or agencies of State or local governments.

William J. Clinton The White House, December 17, 1998.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 21, 1998]