Reagan Signs Order for Time Off Christmas Eve

WASHINGTON —  President Reagan delivered an early Christmas gift to federal employees Tuesday by signing an executive order closing government offices during the last half of the scheduled workday Christmas Eve.

The order allows some agency and department heads to keep their operations going “for reasons of national security or defense or for other essential public reasons” and makes clear that the action taken by the President “is not intended to direct or otherwise implicate departments or agencies of state or local governments.”