{"bills":[{"photos":{"featured":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s721-115/featured_making-access-records-available-to-lead-american-government-openness-act-1492210892.jpg","featured_large":"https://assets.causes.com/bill/photo/s721-115/featured_large_making-access-records-available-to-lead-american-government-openness-act-1492210892.jpg","shareable":"https://n.causes.com/share-images/bills/s721-115.png"},"introduced_on":"2017-03-23","title_override":"Mar-a-Lago Act: Should the White House be Required to Release its Visitor Logs?","summary_override":"

This bill — known as the MAR-A-LAGO Act — would require the President to keep and maintain public visitor logs for all official business, whether it’s conducted at the White House or another location where the president and vice president regularly conduct official business. The requirement would take effect 30 days after enactment, and the public database containing the information would be updated every 90 days.

There would be several exceptions to the requirement:

If a visit is purely personal or if revealing a record would undermine personal privacy, raise law enforcement concerns, or threaten national security.
Logs of sensitive meetings would include only the number of visitors in attendance and their publication could be delayed until the president determines its no longer sensitive.

This bill’s full acronym stands for the Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act. It's named after a Florida golf course resort built by President Trump where he likes to host visitors for business meetings.

","official_title":"A bill to require the disclosure of certain visitor access records.","short_title":"Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act or the MAR-A-LAGO Act\n\nThis bill directs the President to establish and update, every 90 days, a publicly available database that contains records of:\n\n the name of each visitor at the White House, residence of the Vice-President, or any other location at which the President or Vice President regularly conducts official business (covered location); the name of each individual with whom the visitor met at the covered location; and the purpose of the visit. The President shall not include in the database any such record: (1) the posting of which would implicate personal privacy or law enforcement concerns or threaten national security, or (2) relating to a purely personal guest at a covered location.\n\nFor a particularly sensitive meeting, the President shall: (1) include in the database the number of visitors at the covered location, and (2) post the applicable records in the database when their release is no longer ...","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"The American public; people who meet with the president and vice president for business; and the White House.","argument_for":"The American public has a right to know who their president is meeting with behind closed doors, especially when the details of the meeting aren’t published. This requirement should be mandatory and cover any place the president and vice president do business.","argument_against":"While the Obama administration released parts of its visitor logs, previous presidents didn’t and there’s no requirement to do so. 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LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT!!!","twitter_id":null,"facebook_id":"lafigarus","youtube_id":"LauraroseofTexas","google_plus_id":null,"website":null,"slug":"loraki","issue_count":120,"is_following":null,"influence_score":47120,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":536,"following_count":3688,"position_count":920,"id":"8mrgkD9d","partner_id":null},{"name":"Tafinzer","vote_count":291,"photos":{"large":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/yWjEybY9/large_ywjeyby9-1487174556.jpg","small":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/yWjEybY9/small_ywjeyby9-1487174556.jpg","tiny":"https://assets.causes.com/user/avatar/yWjEybY9/tiny_ywjeyby9-1487174556.jpg"},"links":{"following":"/api/users/yWjEybY9/following","followers":"/api/users/yWjEybY9/followers"},"about_me":"Just a fellow traveler bumping along trying to get through it all","twitter_id":"@tafinzer","facebook_id":null,"youtube_id":null,"google_plus_id":null,"website":"","slug":"tafinzer","issue_count":131,"is_following":null,"influence_score":31740,"influence_level":40,"follower_count":653,"following_count":16650,"position_count":55,"id":"yWjEybY9","partner_id":null}],"bill_position":{"flagged":false,"id":"9a426c05-17d8-47e3-bdde-4c5035d530f7","argument_for":null,"argument_against":"My opinion. https://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/the-white-house-will-disclose-visitor-logs/?_r=0 The policy does not cover Camp David or Air Force One. 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Mar-a-Lago Act: Should the White House be Required to Release its Visitor Logs?