STEARNS HOLDS HEARING ON ISSUANCE OF ETHICS WAIVERS TO HIRE LOBBYISTS CONTRARY TO PRESIDENT'S EXECUTIVE ORDER

Washington, May 3 -

"While candidate for President, Obama repeatedly promised that his Administration would be the most open and transparent in history," stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.  "We are here today to examine the Administration's policies on transparency and see what else can be done to ensure the White House follows through on these commitments."

Stearns noted that in response to four lawsuits seeking White House records, the Administration announced a new policy of releasing White House visitor logs to the public.  However, citing a report by the Center for Public Integrity, Stearns said, "Only 1% of the 500,000 meetings from President Obama's first eight months in office have been released; many of the entries do not reflect who actually took part in the meetings; two-thirds of the one million names released are people on guided group tours; and thousands of known visitors to the White House, including numerous lobbyists, are missing from the logs."

Judicial Watch is the nation's largest government watchdog group and its President Tom Fitton testified, "The American people were promised a new era of transparency with the Obama administration.  Unfortunately, this promise has not been kept.  To be clear: the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration."

Fitton also testified on the President's plan to ban lobbyists from his Administration.  He pointed out, "By our count, there have been at least 32 ethics waivers by the Obama administration.  Even worse, we have a report in the New York Times that the Obama White House actually advised some to de-register as lobbyists to get around the anti-lobbyist rules issued by President Obama on the very first day."

During questioning, Stearns delved into the ethics waivers.  He stated, "In light of the fact that the Administration, the President, said, quote, ‘lobbyists will not work in my White House,' that's his statement.  And on one of his first days in office he signed an executive order banning lobbyists from serving in his Administration.  Based upon this executive order, did the President violate his executive order, Mr. Fitton, in your opinion?"  Fitton responded, "The President's position is I will not hire lobbyists unless I want to hire lobbyists…the President wants to have his cake and eat it too on these issues…he holds two positions at once, it's incredible."