(2009-01-22) Obama First Exec Orders

Barack Obama already generated some Executive Order-s and presidential memoranda. In what ethics-in-government advocates described as a particularly far-reaching move, Mr. Obama barred officials of his administration from lobbying their former colleagues "for as long as I am president." He barred former Lobbyist-s from working for agencies they had lobbied within the past two years and required them to recuse themselves from issues they had handled during that time.

• The Republican National Committee criticized the Obama administration for violating this new standard in some of its appointments. Mr. Obama's nominee for deputy secretary of defense, William Lynn, has been a lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon, and his nominee for deputy secretary of health and human services, William Corr, lobbied for stricter tobacco regulations as an official with the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. A senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, conceded the two nominees did not adhere to the new rules. But he said that Mr. Lynn had the support of Republicans and Democrats, and would receive a waiver under the policy, and that Mr. Corr did not need a waiver because he had agreed to recuse himself from tobacco issues. Hrm, Slack or Double Standard?

The new president effectively reversed a post-9/11 Bush administration policy making it easier for government agencies to deny requests for records under the Freedom Of Information Act, and effectively repealed a George W Bush executive order that allowed former presidents or their heirs to claim executive privilege in an effort to keep records secret. This may be applicable to certain records sealed by Bush.