[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 50 (Monday, December 15, 2003)]
[Page 1779]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Executive Order 13320--Closing of Executive Departments and Agencies of 
the Federal Government on Friday, December 26, 2003

December 9, 2003

    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 branch departments and agencies of the 
Federal Government shall be closed and their employees excused from duty 
on Friday, December 26, 2003, the day after Christmas Day, except as 
provided in section 2 below.
    Sec. 2. The heads of executive branch departments and agencies may 
determine that certain offices and installations of their organizations, 
or parts thereof, must remain open and that certain employees must 
report for duty on December 26, 2003, for reasons of national security 
or defense or other public need.
    Sec. 3. Friday, December 26, 2003, shall be considered as falling 
within the scope of Executive Order 11582 of February 11, 1971, 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.
                                                George W. Bush
The White House,
December 9, 2003.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 11, 
2003]

Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on 
December 12.