Democrats are introducing a bill that would require the publication of visitor logs at the White House or any other place President Trump visits.
The kicker is the bill’s acronym is the MAR-A-LAGO Act, which is the name of Trump’s resort in Palm Springs, Fla., where he has stayed on several weekends since becoming president. It stands for the “Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act.”
One of the five Democrats to introduce a House and Senate version, Sen. Tom Udall, D-Utah, said in a tweet on Friday: “Americans deserve transparency from their government. Our MAR-A-LAGO Act will require disclosure of visitor logs at WH & Trump properties.”
“Given [Trump’s] unprecedented move to conduct gov’t business at his private biz properties, WH has an obligation to make visitor logs public, he added. “By refusing to release WH visitor logs, [Trump] is only validating rampant concerns about who’s pulling the levers in his administration.”
Americans deserve transparency from their government. Our MAR-A-LAGO Act will require disclosure of visitor logs at WH & Trump properties. pic.twitter.com/ikVlyUkE3L
— Tom Udall (@SenatorTomUdall) March 24, 2017
A group of Democrats, led by Udall and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, have already pressed Trump to continue the Obama administration practice of voluntarily releasing data on White House visitors, which was typically done after a 90-to-120 day wait.
Earlier this month they sent a letter to Trump and William Callahan, the Secret Service deputy director, asking for the release of visitor logs at the White House and Mar-a-Lago after reports and pictures posted to social media last month claimed Trump, sitting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a crowded dining room, discussed a sensitive national security issue related to a North Korean missile test.
