Executive Order 13238: Closing of Federal Government Executive Departments and Agencies on Monday, December 24, 2001
President: George W. Bush
Closed most executive-branch departments and agencies on December 24, 2001 and excused employees from duty, while allowing agency heads to keep essential offices and staff working for national-security, defense or other public reasons.
Status: Completed/expired.
Is Executive Order 13238 still in effect? No. Implemented; one-day closure completed.
What does Executive Order 13238 do?
The order assigned these duties: Executive departments and agencies — Close offices and excuse employees from duty; Agency heads — Identify offices that had to remain open and employees who had to work.
Confirmed the order concerned only the December 24, 2001 closure, with exceptions for essential work; OPM’s contemporaneous guidance and the pay-and-leave statutes were checked. The one-day action is complete.
Before and after
Before the order
Christmas Day was already a federal holiday, but December 24, 2001 was an ordinary scheduled workday unless leave or another authority applied.
After the order
Agencies treated December 24 as a presidential holiday for federal pay and leave. OPM issued employee guidance, and the Office of the Federal Register adjusted its December effective-date calculations because the government was closed.
Who had to do what
| Agency / office | Action | Timing / position |
|---|---|---|
| Executive departments and agencies | Close offices and excuse employees from duty | December 24, 2001 |
| Agency heads | Identify offices that had to remain open and employees who had to work | Before and on December 24, 2001 |
| Payroll and personnel offices | Apply holiday pay and leave rules to the closure | For the affected pay period |
What happened next
EO 13238 signed.
OPM issued questions and answers on the excused absence.
The Office of the Federal Register published a revised December effective-dates table reflecting the closure.
The one-day closure and essential-service exception were carried out.
Legal and source detail
How it works legally
The order expressly placed the day within EO 11582 and 5 U.S.C. §§ 5546 and 6103(b) for pay and leave. Employees required to work remained subject to holiday-work rules and agency determinations. The order expired by performance and generated no located order-specific merits judgment.
Sources by type
If a source is unavailable, first check the cited publisher or another official repository. The cited publisher remains the authority.
Primary and official sources
Orders, laws, court records and official implementation material.
- OPM — December 24, 2001 employee guidance (opens in a new tab) Official record
- 5 U.S.C. § 5546 — holiday-work pay (opens in a new tab) Official record
How we checked this
Last checked against the sources above on October 2, 2026. How we research →