What's new: Language approved Tuesday by the Democrat-led House Appropriations Committee seeks to compel the White House to produce virtual visitor logs, as well.
- A committee report accompanying a general government appropriations bill directs the White House to retroactively reveal all virtual visitors going back to Biden's Inauguration Day.
- "[T]he Committee is concerned that social-distancing procedures and the resulting increase in virtual meetings will limit the amount of relevant disclosures and harm the public interest," it wrote.
- The report directs the president's staff to brief the committee on its efforts to disclose that information by the fall.
What they're saying: Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), who chairs the Appropriations panel on financial services and general government, added the language to the committee report.
- In a statement emailed to Axios, Quigley called the lack of virtual visitor logs "a loophole" in the White House's transparency efforts.
- "While I am very encouraged that the Biden Administration reinstated the policy of publicly disclosing their White House visitor logs in May, I look forward to working with them to establish virtual visitor logs to ensure and expand accountability in the executive branch," Quigley wrote.
- The White House did not respond to inquiries about the language. Press secretary Jen Psaki previously said the administration had no plans to disclose virtual visitors.
Be smart: Quigley's language is not legally binding, since it's contained in a committee report rather than the appropriations bill itself. But his office expects the White House will play ball.
- "Report language does not have statutory force, (so) departments and agencies are not legally bound by their declarations," according to the Congressional Research Service.
- "These documents do, however, explain congressional intent, and executive branch agencies take them seriously because they must justify their budget requests annually to the Appropriations committees."
