The National Coalition Against Censorship joined a coalition of over a dozen open government groups to urge White House counsel Dana Remus to release the White House’s virtual visitor logs. The Biden administration has resumed releasing White House visitor logs for in-person meetings, a great step forward in regaining public trust in government. However, in the age of Covid-19 and a drastic increase in virtual meetings, the decision not to release virtual visitor logs interferes with the administration’s stated goals of increasing government transparency.
NCAC and its co-signors are urging Remus to consider the records management questions raised by keeping virtual visit records confidential. As the letter states, “The public must have a clear picture of the forces influencing White House policy, and White House meetings and visitors are a necessary part of that picture.” Releasing only in-person visitor logs ignores the realities of how we conduct business in 2021.
Read the full letter below. Click here for a full screen view: