Obama ushers in an ‘era of openness’

By Andrew Ward in Washington

Published: January 21 2009 19:42 | Last updated: January 21 2009 21:35

Barack Obama marked his first full day as president on Wednesday by imposing a pay freeze on senior White House staff and ordering tough new ethics rules designed to herald “a new era of openness” in government.

At a swearing in ceremony for his top staff, the president thanked them for agreeing to the pay freeze, which he described as a mark of commitment to public service and a symbol of shared sacrifice at a time of economic strife.

“Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” he said.

Top White House salaries range from $400,000 for the president to $172,200 for senior aides such as the chief of staff and press secretary.

Mr Obama also signed an executive order -- his first as president -- setting out a series of tough restrictions on lobbying and new standards of government openness.

He said the rules were more strict than those of any previous administration and marked a “clean break from business as usual”.

“Let me say it as simply as I can: transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency,” he added.

The new rules made good on many of the commitments Mr Obama made during his election campaign to reduce the influence of lobbyists on public policy.

Officials entering the administration will be banned from working on matters they lobbied on during the prior two years and officials leaving the administration will be unable to lobby the federal government for as long as Mr Obama is president.

There will also be a ban on gifts from lobbyists to anyone serving in the administration.

“We need to make the White House the people’s house,” he said. “We need to close the revolving door that lets lobbyists come into government freely and lets them use their time in public service as a way to promote their own interests over the interests of the American people when they leave.”

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an ethics watchdog, said she was delighted by the rules, which she described as “very tough”.

In a further move to increase transparency, Mr Obama issued a new directive for how his administration should interpret the Freedom of Information act.

“For a long time now there’s been too much secrecy in this city,” he said. “The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing some thing to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over.”

The orders represented Mr Obama’s first concrete step to roll back the expansion in executive power that occurred during the administration of George W. Bush.

“These historic measures mark the beginning of a new era of openness in our country,” he said. “And I will, I hope, do something to make government trustworthy in the eyes of the American people.”

Mr Obama was later scheduled to hold a meeting with his economic advisers as fresh turmoil on Wall Street cast a cloud over his first full day in office.

Larry Summers, Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser, was among those expected to brief the president a day after fresh concerns about the banking system caused a sharp drop in the stock market.

Mr Obama was also due to hold his first meeting in the White House situation room with his national security team to discuss Iraq.

After a late night attending several inaugural balls, the new president arrived in the Oval Office at 8.35am and spent 10 minutes alone reading a letter from his predecessor, George W. Bush.

It is tradition for the outgoing president to leave a note for his successor on the Oval Office desk.

Robert Gibbs, the new White House press secretary, said the envelope was marked: “To: #44, From: #43” (a reference to Mr Obama’s status as the 44th US president).

Mr Obama and his wife, Michelle, later travelled to a prayer service at the National Cathedral.

As the president entered the cathedral, the all-black Children of the Gospel Children’s Choir was warming up the congregation with songs that seemed handpicked for the guest of honour: ‘The Best is Yet to Come’; ‘A Brand New Day’; ‘Great Day’; and ‘He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands’.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009