综合一区欧美国产,99国产麻豆免费精品,九九精品黄色录像,亚洲激情青青草,久久亚洲熟妇熟,中文字幕av在线播放,国产一区二区卡,九九久久国产精品,久久精品视频免费

Global General

Special

Newsmaker

Asia Pacific

America

Middle East

Europe

Africa

Obama says will release visitor names

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-04 23:42

US President Barack Obama walks through the Colonnade to make remarks on preparedness and response efforts surrounding the 2009 H1N1 flu virus in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, September 1, 2009. [Agencies]

WASHINGTON: In a shift in policy, President Barack Obama said on Friday his White House will release the names of most visitors to satisfy watchdog groups who demanded to know which lobbyists might be attempting to influence policy.

Obama's White House until now had followed the same practice of past presidents of generally keeping the names of White House visitors secret.

This practice over the years has prompted lawsuits by organizations who wanted to know who was meeting with the president and White House officials to determine whether lobbyists were influencing the development of policy on such issues as healthcare and energy.

Related readings:  Obama speech to students draws new controversy  Obama faces a cluster of challenges in a pivotal autumn  Obama aims to take control of health care debate  Obama marks Ramadan at White House  Obama may drop missile sites in East Europe

"For the first time in history, records of White House visitors will be made available to the public on an ongoing basis," Obama said in a written statement.

He added, "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

Under the new policy, each month records of White House visitors from the previous 90 to 120 days will be made available online. Tens of thousands of people visit the White House each month.

The new policy will not include "a small group of appointments that cannot be disclosed because of national security imperatives or their necessarily confidential nature (such as a visit by a possible Supreme Court nominee)," the White House said.

A watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington had filed four lawsuits seeking visitor names.

The White House statement announcing the new policy included a statement from CREW approving of the new position.

"Providing public access to visitor records is an important step in restoring transparency and accountability to our government," said CREW executive director Melanie Sloan.