Keyword: White House
Items: 36 (2 pages)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · November 3, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House releases first batch of visitor logs
The White House on Friday published nearly 500 visitor records online that detail visits made in the months from Obama's inauguration until the end of July, The Washington Post reported.
The records were in response to 110 specific records requests made in September and were released nearly two months before the White House is set to begin publishing visitor logs online each month.
In September, the Obama administration . . . [more]
— Kirk Davis, 5:13 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 23, 2009 · Newsgathering
White House attempted to shut out Fox News reporter
Tension between the White House and Fox News continued to mount this week after broadcast bureau chiefs in Washington refused to go along with the Obama’s administration’s attempt to squeeze Fox News out of an interview.
Despite the administration’s pledge to play nice earlier this week, the White House tried to exclude Fox News – alone among the five White House "pool" networks – from interviewing executive-pay czar Kenneth R. Feinberg . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 2:54 pm · View reader comments (52)
QUICKLINK U.S. · October 20, 2009 · Broadcasting
With Fox dispute intensifying, White House pledges to cooperate
Just days after the White House excluded Fox News from the roster of networks that hosted senior aides on weekend news shows, administration officials have pledged to book representatives on the network going forward, the Associated Press reported.
The move was a conciliatory gesture towards Fox News, which Pres. Obama avoided during his tour of five Sunday morning news programs last month on CNN, NBC, ABC and CBS. For months, the Obama . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 6:58 pm · View reader comments (4)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · October 19, 2009 · Freedom of information
Secret Service denies access to White House visitor logs
Despite the Obama administration's recent legal settlement to begin releasing White House visitor logs later this year, it has denied a different public interest group's recent request for those same records in the meantime.
In denying a request by watchdog group Judicial Watch, the U.S. Secret Service, through the Department of Homeland Security, said that White House visitor logs fall under the Presidential Records Act and are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act because they do not originate with a federal agency.
Last month, the Obama administration announced its plan to voluntarily publish White House visitor logs on its Web site beginning Dec. 31 in response to lawsuits for visitor logs brought by another government watchdog group. The records that were the subject of Judicial Watch's request here -- from Jan. 20, 2009 through Sept. 15, 2009 -- will remain largely private.
“The Obama White House has yet to explain why visitor logs from its first eight months will be afforded special . . . [more]
— Miranda Fleschert, 6:34 pm · View reader comments (2)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · September 9, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House opens up visitor logs
The Obama White House will begin posting online logs of its visitors for the first time in an agreement reached over a series of lawsuits for the records last week.
The government accountability group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reached the agreement for the new policy as a result of four pending lawsuits. CREW had sued for access to the records -- maintained by the U.S. Secret Service -- under the Freedom of Information Act. Two rulings requiring release of Bush administration records were . . . [more]
— Posted at 6:04 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. · July 22, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House refuses to disclose visits by health care executives
In another reminder that the openness promised during campaign season has not become reality, the Obama administration is refusing to disclose White House dates with key players in the health care industry, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Secret Service about meetings with 18 executives representing insurance companies, doctors and pharmaceutical companies. The Secret Service said the . . . [more]
— Lucas Tanglen, 6:09 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · June 19, 2009 · Freedom of information
Dept. of Justice takes up Bush arguments in FOIA case
The Obama Justice Department has advanced yet another Bush administration argument in a government transparency case, this time pushing to withhold former Vice President Cheney's deposition in the long-since concluded Valerie Plame leak case.
In a hearing before Judge Emmet Sullivan Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Justice Department attorney Jeffrey M. Smith told the judge that if Cheney's statements "were published, then a future vice president asked to provide candid information during a criminal probe might refuse to do so out of concern ‘that . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 11:25 am · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · June 16, 2009 · Freedom of information
Echoing Bush years, Obama won't release visitor list
The more things change, the more they stay the same: The Obama administration is refusing to tell who visits the White House -- just like the Bush team did.
MSNBC.com reports that its request for the Secret Service's complete roster of White House guests dating back to President Obama's first day in office in January has been denied. And on Tuesday the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington revealed that it has sued the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the Secret Service, over its refusal to release a list of coal industry executives who have visited the White House since Obama took office.
According to CREW's new lawsuit, the Department of Homeland Security claims the rosters are not agency records subject to the Freedom of Information Act but rather are shielded by the Presidential Records Act. That argument mirrors the Bush administration's stance in a similar case brought by CREW that, as . . . [more]
— Kathleen Cullinan, 2:26 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK U.S. · May 22, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House solicits open government suggestions on Web
The White House has launched a Web site in response to President Obama's Transparency and Open Government memorandum, calling for suggestions from the public on open government policy.
The Open Government Initiative site outlines a process that begins with gathering suggestions, followed by online discussions leading to a wiki-style drafting of recommendations for the Open Government Directive called for by Obama. Recommendations can be . . . [more]
— Lucas Tanglen, 12:48 pm · View reader comments (4)
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · January 30, 2009 · Freedom of information
Panelists: Open government a work in progress
The Obama administration is striving for a more transparent government but faces a number of practical problems in getting there, according to a host of panelists who spoke Thursday at a conference on information policy in the new administration.
The new White House staff is grappling with an older computer system than the one aides were used to from the Obama campaign, and at the same time must work with records-preservation laws that require them to be more cognizant of what documents they are generating, according to Franklin Reeder. He worked on the Obama transition team and is a former director of the White House Office of Administration.
Reeder, speaking on a panel at the American University Washington College of Law, said the transition team itself had worked hard to be as transparent as possible. “In a way that blew me away, the transition team walked the talk. And it was stunning,” he said.
Transition team members were told to make sure all documents they received were posted online and that they were accessible to a wide range of groups seeking to influence change in government, he said.
But, Reeder said, the . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 1:07 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · January 23, 2009 · Freedom of information
Obama's take on transparency and access not beyond reproach
President Obama won widespread praise in his first week office among open-government advocates for issuing a memo reaffirming a commitment to FOIA.
But he also drew criticism over access and transparency after photojournalists were not permitted to take the traditional first pictures of the new president sitting in the Oval Office. The outcry grew when the only still cameraman . . . [more]
— Dana Liebelson, 5:59 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · January 21, 2009 · Freedom of information
Courts still dealing with Bush records policies
Even as President Barack Obama’s new administration takes charge of the White House this week, several disputes over the Bush Administration's records are far from over.
On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a ruling in a key records case the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington brought against then-Vice President Dick Cheney.
In its suit CREW argued that Cheney’s office was not fulfilling its obligations to preserve records under the Presidential Records Act. In response, Cheney’s office made various arguments that Kollar-Kotelly characterized as inconsistent.
"Defendants were unable (or unwilling) to maintain consistent factual positions, and their course of conduct seemed to reflect their belief that they needed to explain their positions only on a 'need to know' basis," she wrote.
Kollar-Kotelly ruled on Monday that the vice president’s records retention policies are . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 5:19 pm · Comments: 0
COMMENTARY U.S. · January 16, 2009 · Freedom of information
Accessing White House records next week and beyond
The Bush Administration is packing its boxes of records as it prepares to leave the White House next week -- and is required by law to send most of those documents to the National Archives and Records Administration. But ensuring that the transition follows the law is troubling to a host of groups with pending records suits against the administration, who want to ensure the documents are retained and that their suits can still go forward.
This week the Justice Department was ordered to make copies of documents at issue in the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. Original documents will go to the National Archives, but Barack Obama's incoming administration will have access to copies so they can defend the suit.
It is unfortunate that the parties should even have to ask for these measures -- the Obama administration will . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 11:13 am · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · January 13, 2009 · Freedom of information
White House ordered to release visitor logs again
The White House was defeated yet again Friday in its attempt to block the release of visitor logs under the Freedom of Information Act.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has been seeking the White House visitor logs since 2006 in a case that has already been to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington and is now back at the trial court. The Bush Administration initially said the visitor logs weren’t subject to FOIA and, when they lost that argument, refused to release the logs on the grounds the . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 5:46 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · December 1, 2008 · Freedom of information
Unveiling the remaining Bush administration secrets
An essay by Washington Monthly editor Charles Homans examines the remaining secrets of the Bush administration – the truth beneath the decisions to go to war in Iraq, to torture captives and to wiretap phone conversations in the name of catching terrorists.
According to Homans, the incoming Obama administration and the new Congress will have to wrestle with the political questions lingering from the secrecy of the past while still addressing the economic crisis and ongoing efforts in . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 5:42 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · November 24, 2008 · Freedom of information
Archives prepares for outgoing White House records
Staff members at the National Archives assured the Public Interest Declassification Board on Friday they are making progress on an electronic record management system and will be ready to receive an unprecedented number of documents and electronic records from the Bush Administration in January.
Assistant Archivist Michael Kurtz also offered his insight into changes the agency would like to see as part of the next administration’s executive order addressing declassification.
Kurtz, recognizing the pro-transparency focus of President-elect Obama, said the Archives wants to be prepared for the changes and offer input.
The current declassification order contains broad exemptions which are applied very differently within and across agencies, Kurtz and others said. An amended order could change the exemptions.
Kurtz also promoted the establishment of a new National Declassification Center as part of an amended or new executive order on classification. Such a facility would house government-wide declassification reviewers and projects and could be paid for by the agencies that classified the information.
The Archives is also preparing for . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 3:48 pm · View reader comments (2)
QUICKLINK D.C. Cir. · November 17, 2008 · Freedom of information
Court seems wary in oral arguments over White House e-mail
Oral arguments Friday in a watchdog's lawsuit over missing White House e-mail messages did not seem to bode well for transparency in the matter, The Associated Press reported.
A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reportedly seemed "cool to the idea" of forcing the Bush administration to release records that could explain how the e-mail went missing. At issue is whether the White House Office of Administration is subject to the Freedom of Information Act; the group . . . [more]
— Kathleen Cullinan, 4:18 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · November 14, 2008 · Freedom of information
Sunshine in Government Initiative releases set of Obama transition proposals
The Sunshine in Government Initiative released a new set of transition team proposals for the incoming Obama administration this week with a focus on the news media.
SGI, of which the Reporters Committee is a member, had four key recommendations for the White House.
They include a presumption of disclosure in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, a ramping up of efforts for the newly created FOIA ombudsman office at the National Archives, and a curtailing of new laws prohibiting . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 7:48 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · November 11, 2008 · Freedom of information
Groups make headway in missing White House e-mail suit
The National Security Archive and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington won a major battle Monday in their efforts to recover missing White House e-mail messages.
A federal court denied the Bush administration’s motion to dismiss the groups’ lawsuit. The two groups are seeking a court order, under the Presidential Records Act and Federal Records Act, saying the White House has to restore thousands of e-mail messages that were improperly archived.
The precise number of missing messages is unknown, but there is a significant gap in the White House e-mail archives between 2003 and 2005.
Judge Henry Kennedy held that the two groups have the right to sue for these records and the court, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, can review presidential record-keeping practices.
National Security Archive General Counsel Meredith Fuchs said in a press release, . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 2:36 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · October 1, 2008 · Freedom of information
Groups win spurt of victories over White House logs
Two Washington-based open-government groups -- Judicial Watch and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- won victories this week in their ongoing records dispute over White House visitor logs.
In a series of five decisions handed down on pending motions Monday and Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Secret Service was ordered to search its computer systems again for records related to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s White House visits.
Judicial Watch first requested the White House visitor information under the Freedom of Information Act in 2006. The Secret Service eventually reached an agreement with the group and released some of the documents requested. But Judicial Watch argued in court that the agency's search for the information it ended up handing over was inadequate.
In one opinion released Tuesday, Judge Royce Lamberth agreed, ordering the Secret Service to broaden its search to include visitor records the Service transferred to White House control.
CREW also filed a FOIA request in 2006 with the . . . [more]
— Hannah Bergman, 6:11 pm · Comments: 0
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