White House Counsel Guidelines for Public Outreach Meetings

We wanted to share with you the specific guidelines for public outreach meetings that we are providing to staff at the White House and agencies around the federal government. A recent administration conference call about the arts has generated some questions about how we go about achieving our commitment to public engagement. We wanted to make these guidelines public to answer questions about our policies and to make clear the steps we are taking to ensure that there is no further cause for questions or concerns about that commitment.

 

Along with this memo, we have also conducted a meeting with the chiefs of staff of the executive branch agencies and have held the first of a series of training sessions at the White House to discuss rules and best practices in this area. Though we have made clear that the call was made with the best of intentions and we believe public engagement is an appropriate and vital part of effective governmental functioning, certain comments on the call raised appearance issues that troubled some participants. Accordingly, we are now issuing this memo as part of our ongoing effort to make our guidelines as clear as possible and we will be conducting further training sessions and personal visits with staff here to make sure the message gets across.

Bill Burton is Deputy Press Secretary