What This Bill Does
This bill requires the President to create and maintain a public database showing who visits the White House, the Vice President's residence, and other official locations where the President or Vice President conduct regular business. The database must be updated every 90 days with visitor information from the previous month.
Who It Affects
The President, the Vice President, visitors to White House and official presidential locations, and the general public who can access the visitor information.
Key Provisions
• The President must establish a publicly available database within 30 days of the bill becoming law that shows visitor names, the names of people they met with, and the purpose of their visits (Sec. 2(b))
• The database must be updated every 90 days with information from the preceding 30-day period (Sec. 2(b))
• The President can exclude visitor records if publishing them would harm personal privacy, create law enforcement problems, threaten national security, or involve purely personal guests (Sec. 2(c)(1))
• For particularly sensitive meetings, the President must at least report the number of visitors and can release the full details later when no longer sensitive (Sec. 2(c)(2))
What Changes
Currently, visitor logs for these locations would not automatically be public. This bill requires automatic public disclosure of visitor information on a regular schedule, with limited exceptions.
Important Definitions
"Covered locations" means the White House, the Vice President's residence, and any other location where the President or Vice President regularly conducts official business.
Effective Date
Not specified in bill text
I
118TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION H. R. 1652
To require the disclosure of certain visitor access records.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 17, 2023
Mr. QUIGLEY introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Oversight and Accountability
A BILL
To require the disclosure of certain visitor access records.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
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tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
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This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Access to White House
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Visitor Logs Act’’.
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SEC. 2. IMPROVING ACCESS TO INFLUENTIAL VISITOR AC-
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CESS RECORDS.
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(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:
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(1) COVERED LOCATION.—The term ‘‘covered
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location’’ means—
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(A) the White House;
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•HR 1652 IH
(B) the residence of the Vice President;
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and
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(C) any other location at which the Presi-
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dent or the Vice President regularly conducts
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official business.
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(2) COVERED
RECORDS.—The term ‘‘covered
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records’’ means information relating to a visit at a
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covered location, which shall include—
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(A) the name of each visitor at the covered
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location;
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(B) the name of each individual with whom
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each visitor described in subparagraph (A) met
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at the covered location; and
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(C) the purpose of the visit.
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(b) REQUIREMENT.—Except as provided in sub-
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section (c), not later than 30 days after the date of enact-
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ment of this Act, the President shall establish and update,
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every 90 days, a publicly available database that contains
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covered records for the preceding 30-day period.
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(c) EXCEPTIONS.—
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(1) IN GENERAL.—The President shall not in-
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clude in the database established under subsection
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(b) any covered record—
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(A) the posting of which would implicate
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personal privacy or law enforcement concerns or
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threaten national security; or
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(B) relating to a purely personal guest at
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a covered location.
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(2) SENSITIVE MEETINGS.—With respect to a
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particularly sensitive meeting at a covered location,
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the President shall—
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(A) include the number of visitors at the
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covered location in the database established
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under subsection (b); and
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(B) post the applicable covered records in
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the database established under subsection (b)
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when the President determines that release of
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the covered records is no longer sensitive.
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Æ
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