History of July 4th as a Work Holiday

Mark Stelzner — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:32:30 +0000

As I strolled to my local coffee shop and took in an uncharacteristically quiet morning in downtown Washington, DC, I began to wonder about the history of the fourth of July as a national work holiday.

Thanks to James Heintze of American University for his extensive research on the topic. Enjoy your day today everyone and let’s keep the fireworks going! Take it away James:

The act of Congress establishing Fourth of July as a holiday, butÂ without pay,Â for federal employees and the District of Columbia occurred in 1870. Senator Hannibal Hamlin (Dem. Maine, and previously vice president under Abraham Lincoln) introduced a Senate Bill (referred HR no. 2224), issued through the Committee on the District of Columbia, Forty-first Congress, Session II, on 24 June 1870, and titled “Legal Holidays in the District.” Hamlin presented his rationale for the bill: “There are no legal holidays here, and this bill merely provides for what I think are the legal holidays in every state of the Union.” Apparently there was no opposition to the bill which “was reported to the Senate without amendment; ordered to a third reading, read the third time, and passed.” It was reported in theÂ Congressional Globe,Â Friday, June 28, 1870, and was printed as Chapter 167:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the following days, to wit: the first day of January, commonly called New Year’s day, the fourth day of July, the twenty-fifth day of December, commonly called Christmas day, and any day appointed or recommended by the President of the United States as a day of public fast or thanksgiving, shall be holidays within the District of Columbia, and shall, for all purposes of presenting for payment or acceptance for the maturity and protest, and giving notice of the dishonor of b ills of exchange, bank checks and promissory notes or other negotiable or commercial paper, be treated and considered as is the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, and all notes, drafts, checks, or other commercial or negotiable paper falling due or maturing on either of said holidays shall be deemed as having matured on the day previous. Approved, June 28, 1870.

On June 29, 1938, by joint resolution of Congress (HJ resolution No. 551; pub. res. no. 127), the Fourth of July was legislated as a Federal holidayÂ with payÂ for its employees:

Resolved by the Senate and House of representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that hereafter whenever regular employees of the Federal Government whose compensation is fixed at a rate per day, per hour, or on a piece-work basis are relieved or prevented from working solely because of the occurrence of a holiday such as New Year’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, or any other day declared a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order, or any day on which the departments and establishments of the Government are closed by Executive order, they shall receive the same pay for such days as for other days on which an ordinary day’s work is performed. Section 2. The joint resolution of January 6, 1885 (U.S.C., title 5, sec. 86), and all other laws inconsistent or ion conflict with the provision of this Act are hereby repealed to the extent of such inconsistency or conflict. Approved, June 29, 1938.

On January 14, 1941, it was brought to the attention of Congress by Robert Ramspeck, Chairman, Committee on the Civil Service of the House of Representatives (see 77th Congress, House of Representatives Report No. 532), that the 1938 Federal holiday law failed to specify that employees of the Government of the District of Columbia also have the Fourth of July designated as a holiday with pay. Harry B. Mitchell, president of the United States Civil Service Commission responded back on April 7 that his office, as well as the Bureau of the Budget, had no objection to amending the 1938 law to include District of Columbia employees. On May 13, 1941, a “Holiday Leave for Per Diem Employees of the District of Columbia” amendment was enacted with the following change made to the 1938 law:

In compliance with paragraph 2a of the Rule XIII, of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law are shown as follows (present law is in roman and new matter is in italics): (Act of June 29, 1938, 52 Stat. 1246) “That hereafter whenever regular employees of the Federal Government or of the district of Columbia whose compensation is fixed at a rate per day, per hour, or on a piece-work basis are relieved or prevented from working solely because of the occurrence of a holiday, such as New Year’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Armistice Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, or any other day declar4ed a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order, or any day on which the departments and establishments of the Government or of the District of Columbia are closed by Executive order, they shall receive the same pay for such days as for other days on which an ordinary day’s work is performed.”

On September 22, 1959, an act was passed by Congress (H.R. 5752, Public Law 86-362) that if the Fourth of July and any other established holiday occurs on a Saturday, “the day immediately preceding such Saturday shall be held and considered to be a legal public holiday, in lieu of such day which so occurs on such Saturday, (A) for such officers and employees whose basic workweek is Monday through Friday, and (B) for the purposes of section 205 (d) of the Annual and Sick Leave Act of 1951 (65 Stat. 681), as amended (5 U.S.C. 2064 (d)). The act also provided for a day of release for employees “whose basic workweek is other than Monday through Friday.” Â (James Heintze, American University)

FedPitch – Exiting Stage Right

Mark Stelzner — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:43:08 +0000

(Don’t worry, I promise that this will be the last post onÂ FedPitch…*grin*)Â

The first annual competition to improve federal workforce management was held last week on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Â It was a hot and sunny day and the sixteenÂ contestantsÂ looked strange in their dress clothes when compared to the thousands of tourists streaming in and out of the Smithsonian Museums. Â Nervous energy was in the air and it wasn’t limited to the presenters. Â Many of the sponsoring organizations had been questioned in prior weeks as to whether an original idea from the ether could actually drive change in the federal workforce. Â

The rules were simple – each “pitch” was limited to two minutes and the presenter could not use notes, wear logos, mention their parent company (if private sector) or do anything other than speak from their memory and heart. Â I was slated to present last, which gave me ample time to drink two bottles of water and a large Gatorade (which unfortunately was the blue color, making it look like all blood had been drained from my lips).

Here was my pitch:

Research shows that organizations with positive brand identity have increased employee retention, higher productivity and larger recruitment pools when compared to those with negative or neutral brands.
The federal government and it’s workforce have three primary brand challenges – a) it is amorphous; b) it is impersonal; and c) it is disproportionately negative. (And yes, I know there are many more but keep in mind I had 120 seconds….)
To counter these challenges and improve brand equity and identity, two specific initiatives should be undertaken in parallel:

Demystify Federal Value-Add: Begin to quantify the daily touch points that we citizens take for granted as consumers of federally produced “products” (such as weather forecasts, bank deposits, traveling on the highways/in the air and consuming untainted food) as a means of increased cognitive awareness.
Localize and Personalize the Federal Workforce: With 90% of the 1.8 million civil servants not in Washington, DC, we have the opportunity to create campaigns that show government worker’s contributions as members of local communities, with real faces and real people offering real services.

The idea here is that increased brand equity and positive brand affinity would likely aid a rapidly draining federal workforce pool. Â The Partnership for Public Service estimates a deficit of 530,000 federal workers by 2012, so this is a real exodus that needs to be addressed.

As you can likely surmise, I didn’t win. Â The winner was a very niceÂ young woman from the Office of Personnel Management. Â She was a bit nervous but had a nice concept for creating an online career quiz that matches an applicant’s interests and work history to available government positions. Â For those readers in the commercial sector, this isn’t revolutionary, but it is something that should help with the perceived and real complexity of the federal application process. Â Her victory makes sense to me because – a) she works for OPM, theÂ de-factoÂ HR department of the federal government responsible for implementing such a solution; b) FedPitch needs a success to carry this initiative into next year; and c) the recruitment process must be streamlined to more closely parallel private sector approaches.

I really hope to see Miss Dingledine’s career quiz in production, if for nothing else than to prove that innovation, no matter how small, can be applied to the seemingly immovable federal machine.

Let’s keep the conversation going.

Inflexion Point » washington dc

History of July 4th as a Work Holiday

FedPitch – Exiting Stage Right