Presidential Records | Center for Effective Government

Presidential Records Act Enters the 21st Century with Social Media

Sep 16, 2009 by Roger Strother*

Earlier today, the Washington Times ran an article that appeared critical of the Obama administration under the overly dramatic title “[White House] Collects web users’ data without notice.” This White House effort is, however, unsurprising and mandated by law – the Presidential Records Act. However, with the new age of government engaging citizens on Facebook, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 social tools the task of archiving electronic presidential communications is more complicated and requires the application of modern archival standards.

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White House to Voluntarily Release Visitor Logs

Sep 4, 2009 by Roger Strother*

Today, the Obama administration made an important advance in executive branch transparency by agreeing to publish the White House visitor logs. Norm Eisen wrote on the White House blog that, “Each month, records of visitors from the previous 90-120 days will be made available online.” The White House agreed to this measure as part of a settlement in a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). As part of this settlement, the Obama administration will also turn over some visitor logs belonging to the Bush administration.

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Obama Issues Memo on Preemption Practices

May 21, 2009 by Rick Melberth*

President Obama issued a memorandum May 20 to the heads of executive departments and agencies that should limit some of the worst preemption practices used by the Bush administration.

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