Bush Declares Jan. 2 a National Day of Mourning for Former President Gerald Ford

CRAWFORD, Texas – President Bush has declared that Tuesday a national day of mourning for former President Gerald R. Ford, who will be honored at a service attended by Bush at National Cathedral on Tuesday.

Federal offices will be closed on Tuesday.

White House officials confirmed that Bush returns to the White House on Monday morning as was previously scheduled before Ford's death, but he will detour first to the Capitol to pay his respects to the 38th president, who will be lying in state.

• Click here for President Ford's funeral schedule.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush will be flying from Texas where they have been spending the week at their ranch. White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said the couple will go straight to the Capitol from Andrews Air Force Base.

Ford, who died Tuesday night at age 93, will be laid to rest near his library in Grand Rapids, Mich. But that's not before a full week of honors that begins with services for family and friends on Friday at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, Calif. Afterward, Ford will lie in repose there until Saturday when his body will be moved to Washington, D.C.

The late president will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda, where 10 other presidents have been honored. A Saturday night funeral service will be held there and attended by Vice President Dick Cheney. The public will be permitted in the Rotunda after 6:30 p.m. EST Saturday night.

Sunday and Monday viewings of the casket will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST before Ford's body is taken to Michigan on Tuesday for burial.

On his way to Washington, the motorcade in which Ford's hearse will travel, will stop at the World War II memorial in joint tribute to the wartime Navy reserve veteran and America's armed forces.

Ford's body will also lie in repose outside the House, where he honed his leadership skills, and the Senate, where as vice president he served in his constitutional role as the chamber's president. That honor breaks with tradition.

"I know personally how much those two tributes themselves meant to President Ford," said family representative Gregory D. Willard, who detailed arrangements in a news conference in Palm Desert, Calif., on Wednesday. Like other presidents, Ford helped plan his funeral arrangements.

Willard said this "unprecedented historic tribute" was designed to honor Ford's 25 years of service in the House, where he rose to minority leader, and his term as president of the Senate while he was Nixon's vice president.

Construction at National Cathedral, where an underground parking garage is being built, will be stilled, but Ed Green, senior project manager for James G. Davis Construction Corp., said they will be unable to beautify the site, whose exterior is full of sand, mud and equipment, before the service.

The project, which employs 140 people and has been under way for a year and a half, will be cleared of potential safety hazards, including paint, compressed liquids and tools. Cloth screens will be hanged over the chain-link fence and stones will be placed out to mark emergency exit paths, Green said Thursday.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff designated Saturday's state funeral a National Special Security Event, meaning the U.S. Secret Service to lead security around the funeral and federal resources "will be deployed to maintain the level of security needed for the event."

The Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Capitol Police, the U.S. Park Police and a number of other federal and local agencies will also play roles in providing security at the funeral.

Not in attendance at any of the services will be incoming Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and five other senators who will be traveling together on a congressional delegation to Latin America.

An official from Reid's office told FOX News that the decision not to cut short the trip was not a snub at Ford, but an effort to keep appointments that were scheduled months ago with three South American presidents.

FOX News' Greg Kelly and Molly Hooper and The Associated Press contributed to this report.