Federal workers, including those at the federal financial institution regulatory agencies, will be excused from duty under an executive order issued by the president over the weekend, according to guidance issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Monday.
At least one regulator announced Monday its Washington offices would be closed Dec. 5: the Federal Reserve issued a statement saying its offices in the national capital would be closed. The Beige Book will still be published that day (at 2 p.m. as scheduled), but all other previously scheduled releases will be postponed until Thursday, Dec. 6.
Federal Reserve Bank payment systems will operate normally, the Fed said, and Reserve Bank cash offices will fulfill orders for currency and coin according to normal operating procedures.
“As the Nation mourns the loss of President George H. W. Bush, President Trump has taken official action to allow Federal employees to join their fellow citizens in remembering our forty-first President of the United States,” states the guidance issued by OPM Acting Director Margaret M. Weichert. “The President has issued an Executive order to close Federal offices and excuse all Federal employees from duty for the scheduled workday on Wednesday, December 5, 2018, 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.”
The notice also states that, for pay and leave purposes, Dec. 5 will be treated as a holiday under “the scope of statutes and Executive orders.”
“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,” the guidance states. “An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave on December 5, 2018, will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for that day.”