In one of his first acts as President, Barack Obama overturned an executive order issued by President Bush in November, 2001, regarding the Presidential Records Act of 1978.
The Presidential Records Act of 1978 was passed to ensure the availability of internal documents of the executive branch. The P.R.A. actually was, in some respects, an act that made these records a little less accessible. What it did was make presidential records unavailable until up to 12 years after an administration leaves office. The documents would only then be available via a Freedom of Information Act request, which, would keep classified documents classified. President Bush, however, appears to have tried to undermine the act completely with Executive Order 13233. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales drafted the order, which gave the president the right to review the documents being requested, with no time limit. It also gave the president the right to decide not to release them, requiring party making the request to sue the administration in order to obtain them.
Today, however, President Obama revoked Executive Order 13233 with an executive order of his own. Obama's order prohibits not only former presidents from blocking the release of documents that could be embarrassing, but also limits the ability of family members, and former Vice Presidents to block the release of documents as well.
President Obama commented on the secrecy that has become common practice within the United States Government, saying, "Information will not be withheld just because I say so...It will be withheld because a separate authority believes it is well-founded in the Constitution."
In another effort to make his administration more transparent, Obama also placed tighter restrictions on lobbyists by prohibiting them from giving gifts to any member of his administration. He also banned former lobbyists that have now accepted government positions from working on issues that are related to their former lobbying positions.
Update I (1/22/09): It's not clear at this time whether or not Obama's executive order undermined Judge Kotar-Kotelly's recent ruling that sided with Vice President Cheney, which according to Raw Story, made him the "sole determining authority on the public release of his vice presidential records."
Sources:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSHI4TSbydFa8AAD9VW8_TJit-dgD95RQER00
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/01/obama-establish.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28758810/
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Court_Public_VP_records_to_be_0119.html
www.formyourown.org
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