Each year, the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) selects the annual U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree in consultation with the United States Forest Service. The 2024 tree is an 80-foot Sitka spruce from the Wrangell District Region in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. Image: Architect of the Capitol
President Biden has granted a full day of excused absence for Tuesday, December 24, following a pattern of Presidential grants of paid time off without charge to other forms of leave—sometimes for full days, as in this case, although only for part-days in other cases—when the Christmas Day holiday is observed on a Tuesday through a Friday.
There is an exception for “those who, in the judgment of the head of the agency, cannot be excused for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need,” according to a memo on chcoc.gov.
“Most employees who are excused from duty on December 24th will receive the basic pay they would have received if no Executive order had been issued. An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave on December 24th will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for his or her scheduled workday,” the memo says.
“An employee who is required to work nonovertime hours on December 24th is entitled to holiday premium pay” (an add-on equal to their basic pay), it adds, with the exception of those who receive annual premium pay for standby duty and firefighters covered by certain special pay provisions.
A fact sheet attached to the memo addresses other specific considerations including that:
* If an employee has scheduled “use or lose” annual leave for Tuesday, December 24, and is unable to reschedule that leave for use before the end of the leave year (that is, for most employees, January 11, 2025), the leave will be forfeited.
* Employees (including those on flexible or compressed schedules) who were not scheduled to work on the 24th are entitled to an “in-lieu-of” holiday, which generally is the basic workday immediately preceding the nonworkday. However, that does not apply to part-time or intermittent employees.
* Because the grant of a day off on December 24 creates two holidays in the same pay period (running December 15-28), full-time employees on flexible schedules under which they work more than 8 hours a day must make arrangements to work extra hours during other regularly scheduled workdays, or take annual leave or use credit hours or compensatory time off, in order to fulfill the 80-hour biweekly work requirement.
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