We pause here on Independence Day to commend President Obama for the significant progress he is making toward fulfillment of his “Sunlight Before Signing” promise from the 2008 presidential campaign.

With SBS, Obama said he would sign no bill that came to his desk until it had been posted for five days on the White House Web site “so that you know what your government is doing.” This pledge could have been construed as political grandstanding because the bills would have previously been debated in Congress and presumably subjected to extensive public examination. But knowing a bill would be thus displayed on the White House Web site would be an important backstop against congressional attempts to circumvent public demands for greater transparency in the legislative process.