Friday, September 4, 2009

White House Will Post Visitor Logs Online

The Obama administration and watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington on Wednesday settled four ongoing cases regarding public access to White House visitor records. The most significant development, CREW said early Thursday, is the commitment by the administration to affirmatively post visitor records online on an ongoing basis, bringing a historic level of transparency to the White House. Visitor records are created by the Secret Service as part of its statutory responsibility to protect the president, vice president, their residences, and the White House generally.

"The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. "The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration - by putting visitor records on the White House Web site - will have the most open White House in history." Because of the policy change, CREW dismissed its lawsuits, which were filed after the Bush and later the Obama administration refused to provide White House visitor records in response to Freedom of Information Act requests.

In the Bush era, CREW wanted to review the log of visits by Christian conservative leaders and lobbyist Stephen Payne. The administration argued the records were presidential records, not agency records of the Secret Service, and therefore exempt from the FOIA's mandatory disclosure requirements. U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth disagreed, ruling twice that the records are subject to the FOIA and not within any of the claimed exemptions. After Obama took office, CREW sought records of visits to the White House by health care and coal executives. The government initially refused to turn over those records.

President Obama issued a statement saying that each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days will be made available online. "We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside," he said. "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."