Heinrich Introduces Legislation To Require White House Visitor Logs To Be Public

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in an effort to push for transparency from the Trump administration, introduced the White House Visitor Logs Transparency Act of 2017 to require the White House to make its visitor logs public. 

"The American people deserve to know that the President of the United States will act in their best interest, but the secrecy and lack of transparency from this administration will only continue to obscure President Trump’s conflicts of interest," said Senator Heinrich. "We must ensure President Trump understands that he is accountable to the American people and that he cannot continue to operate in the shadows. At the end of the day he is the people's president and I will fight for the transparency and accountability that Americans deserve."

Senator Heinrich has expressed deep concern with President Trump's erosion of transparency and clear shift to obstruct the American people from accessing information on who is visiting the White House and who is influencing the formulation of policy in the Trump administration. The legislation would require the United States Secret Service to provide records of White House visitors, including their name, date and time of visit and who they met with, within 30 days of a request for disclosure. As with previous administrations, the legislation would exempt any information that would cause a national security threat. 

Last week, Senator Heinrich joined Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Tom Udall, (D-N.M.) and Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) in a letter to President Trump calling on him to disclose ethics waivers and White House visitor logs. 

A copy of the bill is available here.