As one of the most important and tragic days in American history, September 11, 2001, is not a federal holiday. Instead, September 11 is officially designated as Patriot Day through a joint congressional resolution passed on December 18, 2001. It establishes the day as a national observance but does not grant any pay time off to federal employees nor does it require businesses and schools to close during the observance.
The difference between federal holidays and days of observance is very important. Each Patriot Day is to be celebrated as a National Day of Service and Remembrance to encourage Americans to be involved in volunteer activities for their communities, and memorials. Annually, proclamations are issued by the Presidents calling for flags to be flown at half-staff and moments of silence at 8:46 A.M. Eastern Time, reserved for the time when the first plane struck the World Trade Center.
The complex process of creating federal holidays
Making a new federal holiday requires an act of Congress and the usual presidential approval. The exclusive authority of Congress is to make federal holidays for all federal employees, and for the District of Columbia, but it may not put the federal government in charge of those holidays called “national holidays”, binding all 50 states. Each state determines its own legal holidays, but many follow the federal designations.
Bills are introduced in both Houses, referred to committee, and voted by both chambers before being signed by the president into law. In fact, this process may stretch out over years or even decades. It took perhaps the longest in American history to achieve federal holiday status for Juneteenth.
Selective and historical precedent
There have been few such holidays passed by Congress throughout U.S. history. The first four such holidays were made federal holidays by the Act of Congress in 1870: New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. In all, just seven federal holidays were added after that year, the most recent being Juneteenth in 2021. Only four federal holidays have been created in the past century.
New federal holidays have a great variety of patterns around them. Sometimes Congress gets on the bandwagon only after over 40 states have already made a holiday specific to that state, while in other cases, Congress leads the way. Each holiday has a different focus regarding the emphasis of certain different aspects of the American heritage or significant events in history.
What makes September 11 unique?
American federal holidays are, as a general case, meant to commemorate achievements, milestones, or honor service, and not tragedies. Memorial Day does honor those who died in military service, but the occasion is a celebration of sacrifice and service to the nation. Veterans Day honors all military veterans for their contributions. By contrast, September 11 would memorialize a terrorist attack, a wholly different type of event.
As historian Brian Balogh has pointed out, American holidays “by and large, don’t commemorate tragedies”. Just like Memorial Day and Veterans Day, these two holidays include remembrance of loss, but they shouldn’t be equated because they are celebrations in essence. A federal holiday that would be created around the day of September 11 might run the risk of losing that solemn meaning over time, given the fact that holidays usually become associated with leisure activities rather than reflection.
Practical and financial reasons
The most important aspect of the impact of federal holidays on the Congressional decisions is financial. The cost that taxpayers could spend for each federal holiday could reach an amount between $818-918 million as base pay to those federal employees who take the holidays off. In total, this sum will cover both normal pay and premium pay for the essential federal employees who have to work during holidays.
Right now the thinking in Congress is that there are too many federal holidays, says Donald Wolfensberger, who spent some time as a staff member of the House Rules Committee. Some members of Congress have even called for the removal of existing holidays like Columbus Day, making the new addition significantly more challenging.
Recent legislative activity and current situation
Several Congresses have attempted to make September 11 a federal holiday over the years. In 2023, Representative Michael Lawler submitted H.R. 2382, the September 11 Day of Remembrance Act and similarly Senator Marsha Blackburn presented a companion bill S.1472. Most recently, in February 2025, Representatives Brian Fitzpatrick and Tom Suozzi presented the Patriot Day Act to secure bipartisan support for enacting September 11 as a permanent federal holiday.
Like any proposed holiday, the bills above must pass through a committee and receive floor votes in both chambers and a presidential signature before becoming law. Previous attempts have stalled at the committee stage, which continues to show the difficulty in building up enough Congressional support.
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