I’ve covered President Obama’s “Sunlight Before Signing” campaign promise here many times before. And, as predicted when I last reported, Obama has turned the corner and begun giving bills some sunlight.
In December, five bills were posted on Whitehouse.gov for five days before the president signed them. (Technically, they were only linked to from Whitehouse.gov, but the link allowed citizens to find the text of bills awaiting his signature—the substance of the promise.)
Those five join the DTV Delay Act, Public Law 111–4, to make six out of 124. That’s a .048 batting average on Sunlight Before Signing, a huge rise from the .009 average he had after signing P.L. 111–118.
After the jump, you can see the latest SBS chart. I expect that President Obama’s average will continue to rise as more bills see the public airing he promised when he campaigned for the presidency.
* Page now gone, but it was either directly observed, evidence of it appears in Whitehouse.gov search, or White House says it existed.
† Bill was posted for five days after final passage, though not formal presentment. Counted as “Yes.”
‡ Link to final version of bill on impossible-to-find page.