Executive Order 14371 directed every executive department and agency of the federal government to close on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, and Friday, Dec. 26, 2025. The order was signed Dec. 18, 2025, and published in the Federal Register on Dec. 23, 2025. It excused employees from duty on the day before Christmas Day and the day after.
Those closings covered the executive departments and agencies named in the order. The order did not say which specific offices would stay open, or how many employees would still have to work.
The order said Dec. 24, 2025, and Dec. 26, 2025, “shall be considered as falling within the scope” of Executive Order 11582 of Feb. 11, 1971, and of federal statutes on pay and leave for employees of the United States. It pointed to those laws only insofar as they relate to pay and leave.
Heads of executive departments and agencies could decide that certain offices and installations, or parts of them, must remain open. They could also require certain employees to report for duty on one or both of those days. The order limited those decisions to national security, defense, or another public need.
The order directed the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to take the actions needed to carry it out. It said implementation must be consistent with applicable law and subject to available appropriations.
Nothing in the order impairs authority that law already gives an executive department, an agency, or its head, the order said. It also leaves in place the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget on budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
The order said it does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, that any party could enforce in court against the United States, its departments, agencies, entities, officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.