Obama to post White House Visitor Records online

Yesterday, the Obama administration and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) settled four ongoing cases regarding public access to White House visitor records.  The most significant development is the commitment by the Obama administration to affirmatively post visitor records on-line on an ongoing basis, bringing a historic level of transparency to the White House.

The agreement stems from lawsuits CREW filed after the Bush and later the Obama administration refused to provide White House visitor records in response to CREW’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.  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.

After President Obama took office, CREW sought records of visits to the White House by health care and coal executives to determine the degree of their influence on health care and energy legislative proposals.  The government initially refused to turn over these records, but now has agreed to release them, as well as the Bush era records, as part of the settlement.  In turn, CREW has agreed to dismiss all the pending litigation.

CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan praised the White House saying, “The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise.  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.” [CREW]

Putting the White House visitor records online is precisely what the White House should do. President Obama promised greater transparency when he campaigned for election – remember the talk about televising negotiations on C-SPAN?

The President hasn’t gone that far as yet, but he should keep that promise. It shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit to force disclosure of the visitors records. You can see them here.

I was particularly curious about who has been going to the White House with relation to health care/insurance reform. The very first guy on the list is Bill Tauzin (President and CEO, Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America aka PhRMA). He is the former Republican (and Democrat before switching parties) Congressman from Louisiana who cut the deal with Obama for the pharmaceutical industry to pay $80,000 million if the administration wouldn’t make them reduce the costs of drugs and medications at the pharmacies. As far as I’m concerned Tauzin is a huckster and and I am dismayed Obama would even let him in the White House.

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