Obama overturns Bush order on access to White House records

Obama overturns Bush order on access to White House records
12:00 AM CST on Thursday, January 22, 2009

By TODD J. GILLMAN / The Dallas Morning News
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama began dismantling the Bush legacy Wednesday, using his first full day to overturn an order that let ex-presidents seal their papers forever.

It was one of a number of big and small steps by the new president that, taken together, amounted to a slashing denunciation of his predecessor – from an order halting military tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to one meant to make unclassified records more readily available to the public.

"It is a new day," said Lee White, executive director of the National Coalition for History, one of scores of groups that had complained for years about the Bush order regarding White House records. "This ... makes it much more difficult for a former president to shape his legacy."

Researchers generally can't get access to White House records for at least five years after a president leaves office. Documents involving national security remain out of reach far longer.

Concerns over access to White House records had grown more acute as George W. Bush's retirement became imminent.

Bush issued the controversial order two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, citing concerns about the premature release of Clinton-era records, and he defended the policy this month in an interview.

"I am concerned about information getting into the public domain that shouldn't be in the public domain," Bush said.

The policy was a key reason cited by critics of Southern Methodist University's pursuit of his presidential library.

Obama vowed during the campaign to overturn the order, as part of a government "transparency" agenda. Open-government advocates called it a pleasant surprise that he put a focus on the issue so soon after taking office.

"This is the earliest and probably the most emphatic call for more open government from any president," said Tom Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Bill Clinton took nine months to issue his first directive regarding government records. The Bush administration issued its first directive in October 2001 – a memo by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft that told federal bureaucrats in essence that if they had any reason to withhold records from the public, they should.

Obama ordered the opposite presumption on Wednesday: "In the face of doubt, openness prevails."

"It's a whole new attitude,' said Steven Aftergood, head of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "It's a repudiation of Bush policies. One of the defining features of the Bush administration was a disdain for public disclosure of information."

Delays for release of Ronald Reagan's records reached seven years at one point. The National Archives blamed a shortage of archivists.

Blanton said Bush policies had aggravated the problem, by signaling that timely release of records that by law the public is entitled to inspect isn't a high priority.

"It put molasses into a system that was already gummed up," he said.

Researchers remain hopeful that Congress will codify the order Obama signed Wednesday, so future presidents can't revert to less open policies on White House records. They are also hoping the new administration classifies fewer documents.