President Obama has issued an executive order generally granting federal employees excused absence on the last half of their scheduled work day December 24. That repeats his action of 2009, when Christmas Day fell on a Friday as it does this year, and was widely expected, although grants of such time off are totally at a President’s discretion. One complication this time was that such an action is a grant of administrative leave (paid time off without charge to leave, also called excused absence), whose use has been the subject of several critical reports and congressional attention this year. The additional time off is “with pay and without a charge to leave, 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 need,” according to an OPM memo. “For pay and leave purposes, the last half of the scheduled workday on December 24, 2015, will be treated as falling within the scope of statutes and executive orders governing holidays for federal employees.”