[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 51 (Monday, December 21, 1998)]
[Page 2500]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13109--Half-Day Closing of Executive Departments and 
Agencies of the Federal Government on Thursday, December 24, 1998

December 17, 1998

    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]

Note:  This Executive order will be published in the Federal Register on 
December 22.