White House Record On Making Legislation Available to the Public For Five Days Before Signing

Jim Harper of the Cato Institute has posted his analysis of where President Obama currently stands on his pledge to post all legislation online for five full days before signing it into law. Harper concludes that:

• President Obama has signed 114 bills into law.
• 86 of those bills, or 75%, have been held at the White House for five or more days as a matter of course. Simply posting them on Whitehouse.gov for comment would have fulfilled the president’s pledge.
• Forty-seven bills (41%) have been posted on Whitehouse.gov for five days, but without links leading visitors or search engines to them, so they cannot be counted as fulfillments of the Sunlight Before Signing promise.
• One bill has been posted online for five days, accessible to the public for their review, before receiving the president’s signature: The DTV Delay Act, Public Law 111-4.

Harper notes that a “link on the homepage [of the White House] pointing to bills awaiting the president’s signature” is now available, and predicts that the percentage of bills fulfilling the President’s campaign pledge will greatly increase.

The Pelican Institute applauds the move by the White House to ensure greater transparency and hopes that this trend will continue.