President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation announcing the death of former President Jimmy Carter. The proclamation declares Thursday, January 9, 2025, to be a National Day of Mourning.
Federal agencies will be closed on January 9, 2025, in honor of the death of America’s 39th President, Jimmy Carter, along with the Supreme Court and Post Office. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq will be closed as well.
The national funeral will be held January 9 at the Washington National Cathedral. The full schedule of ceremonies for the former president’s funeral services are listed on the Carter Center website.
Extra Holiday for Federal Employees
As is customary for a National Day of Mourning, most federal employees will have the day off as a paid holiday. The provisions of the Executive Order (EO) issued by President Biden closing the government to honor former President Carter set the guidelines for this extra holiday.
The Executive Order, released on December 30, 2024, orders federal agencies to prepare for the closing. This preparation includes determining the offices to remain open and personnel who will be required to report for national security, defense or other essential duties. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will undertake the job of implementing the Executive Order.
Some federal employees may be required to report to work. The Executive Order states, “The heads of executive 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 January 9, 2025, for reasons of national security, defense, or other public need.”
Holiday Pay
OPM issued guidance detailing how federal employees will be paid for the holiday. According to OPM:
For pay and leave purposes, this period of time will be treated as falling within the scope of statutes and Executive orders governing holidays. 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. An employee who was previously scheduled to take annual leave on January 9, 2025 (or applicable in-lieu of day), will not be charged annual leave (or any other form of paid leave, compensatory time off, or credit hours) for the employee’s scheduled workday. An employee who is required to work nonovertime hours on January 9th (or applicable in lieu-of day) is entitled to holiday premium pay under 5 U.S.C. 5546(b). (This paragraph does not apply to employees who receive annual premium pay for standby duty under 5 U.S.C. 5545(c)(1) or to firefighters who are covered by the special pay provisions of 5 U.S.C. 5545b.)
OPM also notes in its guidance that the president’s EO means that there will now be two holidays in the same pay period: January 1 and January 9, 2025. OPM has more information on its website about this scenario. It states:
Occasionally, two (or more) holidays will fall within the same pay period. A full-time employee on a flexible work schedule is entitled to 8 hours of pay on a holiday when the employee does not work. (See 5 U.S.C. 6124.) Therefore, when two (or more) 8-hour holidays fall within the same pay period, a full-time employee on a 5/4-9 flexible schedule (or other flexible schedules under which employees 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.
See OPM’s guidance document for complete details as to how pay and leave will be handled for the additional holiday.
About Former President Jimmy Carter
President Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981, brokered a historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and set in motion other changes that would dominate global politics in subsequent years. He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.
The 39th president’s four-year term was also marred by stubborn inflation, gasoline lines, gridlock in Congress and the seizure of American hostages in Iran.
President Carter and his wife Rosalynn Carter began working with Habitat for Humanity in the 1980s and volunteered extensive amounts of time with the organization to help build homes for those in need.
The Wall Street Journal notes, “Over more than 35 years, the Carters worked alongside more than 104,000 volunteers in 14 countries to build, renovate and repair nearly 4,400 homes. They raised funds for Habitat, connected its leaders with officials around the globe and helped catapult its growth and expand its scope to advocacy and other work.”
President Carter died on December 29, 2024. He was 100 years old. Mr. Carter was the oldest living former American president, as well as the longest-lived former president in our history.
Former President Carter will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol.
