White House Visitors

Our White House Visitor records are sourced from the Obama Administration's Transparency Initiative and subsequent disclosures. These records document visitors to the White House complex including visit dates, visitee information, and purpose of visit.

• Coverage Obama Administration (2009-2017), Biden Administration
• Records 6+ Million visitor records
• Sources White House Visitor Logs, Obama Administration Transparency Initiative, NARA
• Legal Basis Voluntary executive disclosure, FOIA requests

What Are White House Visitor Logs?

White House visitor logs are records maintained by the United States Secret Service that document individuals who visit the White House complex, including the White House itself, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (EEOB), and other facilities within the White House grounds. These records are generated through the Secret Service's access control system, which requires all visitors to the complex to be pre-cleared and logged for security purposes. Over the course of a presidential administration, millions of visitor records accumulate, creating a detailed chronicle of who has access to the highest levels of American government.

The White House complex is one of the most visited government buildings in the world, hosting not only high-level policy meetings and diplomatic events but also public tours, ceremonial occasions, staff-related visits, and numerous other activities. The visitor records capture all of these interactions, providing a unique window into the day-to-day operations of the executive branch and the web of relationships that connect government officials, lobbyists, business leaders, foreign dignitaries, advocacy groups, and members of the public to the presidency.

While the Secret Service has maintained visitor records for decades as part of its security mission, the public release of these records is a relatively recent development. Prior to 2009, White House visitor logs were treated as presidential records exempt from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The decision to proactively release visitor logs was a significant step in government transparency, providing the public with an unprecedented level of visibility into who is meeting with the president, senior advisors, and White House staff.

The Transparency History: From Secrecy to Disclosure

The public release of White House visitor logs began under the Obama Administration as part of a broader transparency initiative launched in the first days of the presidency. On January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum on transparency and open government, signaling a commitment to making government information more accessible to the public. In September 2009, the administration announced that it would begin proactively releasing White House visitor records, making the United States one of the first countries in the world to disclose this type of information.

This decision came after a legal battle over visitor logs during the George W. Bush Administration. The watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had filed lawsuits seeking access to Secret Service visitor records under FOIA, arguing that the public had a right to know who was visiting the White House and meeting with senior government officials. The Bush Administration resisted disclosure, claiming that visitor records were presidential records covered by the Presidential Records Act rather than agency records subject to FOIA. The Obama Administration's voluntary release policy effectively mooted these legal disputes, at least for the duration of that administration.

Under the Obama disclosure policy, visitor records were released on a rolling basis approximately 90 to 120 days after the visit occurred. This delay was intended to protect sensitive information about ongoing policy deliberations and diplomatic activities. Certain categories of visits were exempt from disclosure, including visits related to national security matters, purely personal visits to the President's family, and visits that could compromise protective operations. Despite these exemptions, the Obama Administration released over 6 million visitor records during its eight years, creating the largest public dataset of White House access ever produced.

The Trump Administration discontinued the proactive release of visitor logs in April 2017, citing security concerns and the cost of processing records for release. This decision drew criticism from transparency advocates who argued that the policy reversal reduced accountability at the highest levels of government. The Biden Administration restored the voluntary disclosure policy upon taking office in January 2021, resuming the regular publication of visitor records in a format consistent with the Obama-era releases.

What Information Is Available in Visitor Records?

Each White House visitor record contains several data fields that together provide a detailed picture of the visit. Understanding these fields is essential for interpreting the data accurately.

The visitor name is the first and last name of the individual who visited the White House complex. For large events such as holiday parties, tours, or ceremonies, individual visitor names may be listed in batch, resulting in records with less detailed information about the specific purpose of each person's visit. The date of appointment records when the visit was scheduled to take place, and the appointment time provides the specific time of the scheduled meeting or event.

The visitee name identifies the White House official whom the visitor was scheduled to see. This is one of the most significant fields in the dataset, as it reveals which senior officials are meeting with which outside individuals and organizations. The visitee might be the President, Vice President, a senior policy advisor, a member of the National Security Council staff, or any other White House employee. The meeting location indicates where within the White House complex the visit took place, which can provide context about the nature of the meeting -- a meeting in the Oval Office carries different significance than one in a conference room in the EEOB.

The description or purpose field provides a brief narrative explanation of the reason for the visit. These descriptions vary widely in specificity, from detailed descriptions like "meeting on healthcare policy" to generic entries like "office visit" or "group tour." The total number of visitors in a group may be recorded for events involving multiple attendees, and the caller name identifies the White House staff member who arranged or authorized the visit.

Some records also include arrival and departure times, indicating when the visitor actually entered and left the complex, as distinct from the scheduled appointment time. These timestamps are recorded by the Secret Service access control system and provide evidence of the actual duration of visits.

WAVES and ACR Records

The White House visitor records are generated through two related Secret Service systems: the Workers and Visitors Entry System (WAVES) and the Access Control Records (ACR) system. Understanding these systems helps explain the structure and limitations of the published data.

WAVES is the primary system used to process and clear visitors to the White House complex. When a White House staff member wants to invite a visitor, they submit a WAVES request that includes the visitor's name, date of birth, Social Security number (for background check purposes), and the details of the proposed visit. The Secret Service runs a background check against law enforcement databases and either clears or denies the visitor. Cleared visitors are added to the WAVES access list for their scheduled visit date. When the visitor arrives at the White House gates, the Secret Service verifies their identity against the WAVES list before granting entry.

ACR records are created when a visitor physically enters and exits the White House complex, recording the actual timestamp of their arrival and departure through the security checkpoint. While WAVES records document who was invited and expected, ACR records document who actually showed up and how long they stayed. The publicly released visitor logs combine data from both systems, though the level of detail varies across different data releases.

It is important to note that the published data has been processed to remove sensitive personal information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and specific security clearance details. The public release includes only the information relevant to transparency -- who visited, when, whom they saw, and why -- while protecting the security-sensitive data collected during the clearance process.

How to Access and Interpret White House Visitor Logs

White House visitor logs are released in downloadable data files, typically in CSV (comma-separated values) format, which can be opened in spreadsheet programs like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. During the Obama Administration, the records were published on the White House website (whitehouse.gov) with a searchable interface. After the transition of power, historical Obama-era records were transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), where they remain publicly accessible.

When interpreting visitor log data, several important caveats should be kept in mind. First, not all visits to the White House are reflected in the public logs. Visits exempted for national security, personal, or protective reasons are excluded, meaning the logs provide an incomplete picture of total White House access. Second, the visitor logs record scheduled visits, and a record does not necessarily confirm that a meeting actually took place -- visitors may cancel, reschedule, or fail to show up without the WAVES record being updated.

Third, the visitee field indicates which White House staff member authorized the visit, but meetings may involve multiple officials, and the visitor may have interacted with people other than the named visitee. Fourth, large events like holiday parties, tours, and ceremonial occasions generate thousands of visitor records that may have limited research value compared to individual policy meetings. Researchers often filter these out when analyzing the data for lobbying or policy influence patterns.

OpenDataUSA incorporates White House visitor log data into our comprehensive people search, allowing users to discover whether an individual has visited the White House complex alongside their other public record information. This integration provides additional context that can be valuable for understanding an individual's connections to government and policy influence.

Limitations of Visitor Data

While White House visitor logs represent a significant transparency achievement, they have important limitations that users should understand. The most fundamental limitation is that disclosure is voluntary. Unlike FOIA-mandated records, the release of visitor logs depends entirely on the willingness of each presidential administration to publish them. As demonstrated by the Trump Administration's decision to discontinue releases, this transparency can be reversed at any time without legal consequence.

The exemptions built into the disclosure policy also create gaps in the record. National security exemptions mean that some of the most consequential meetings at the White House -- those involving intelligence briefings, military planning, and sensitive diplomatic negotiations -- are excluded from the public logs. While these exemptions are understandable given legitimate security concerns, they mean that researchers cannot treat the visitor logs as a complete record of who has had access to senior government officials.

Additionally, the visitor logs only cover the White House complex itself. Meetings between White House officials and outside individuals that take place at other locations -- restaurants, hotels, private residences, or other government buildings -- are not captured in the WAVES/ACR system. Transparency advocates have noted that officials seeking to avoid disclosure could simply arrange meetings off-site, and some reporting has suggested that this has occurred during administrations that released visitor logs.

Finally, the data quality of visitor logs can be uneven. Description fields are often vague or blank, names may be misspelled or formatted inconsistently, and group events can generate thousands of records with minimal distinguishing information. Despite these limitations, the visitor logs remain one of the most valuable transparency resources available for understanding executive branch access and influence in the United States.

Frequently Asked Questions