During the campaign, Barack Obama promised that in his administration, "Communications about regulatory policymaking between persons outside government and all White House staff [will be] disclosed to the public."

It took some prodding, even several lawsuits, but on Sept. 4, 2009, the White House announced that it will begin to release its visitor logs. There are significant caveats -- all records will be between 90 and 120 days old by the time they are released, the releases only cover addresses, and "appointments that cannot be disclosed because of national security imperatives or their necessarily confidential nature" will not be listed -- but the White House nevertheless referred to the decision as a "major milestone in government transparency."

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a transparency watchdog group, issued a statement after the September decision to begin releasing the logs: "The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise. The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House. In contrast, the Obama administration — by putting visitor records on the White House Web site — will have the most open White House in history."

Still, visitor logs are a far cry from communications about regulatory policymaking between people inside and outside the White House.

John Wonderlich, policy director for the Sunlight Foundation, an open government group, said the way the promise is written suggests a broad policy of making publicly available such things as e-mails and other communications, not just visitor logs.

There have been some spotty attempts at transparency along those lines, some blog posts about regulatory matters involving the economic stimulus package and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, for example, Wonderlich said. But those related mostly to lobbyists' communication with White House staff, "Nothing that could be applied broadly to regulatory policymaking."

Wonderlich noted that Cass Sunstein was only confirmed as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in September. And in December, the White House issued an open government directive, which gives Sunstein 120 days to initiate a review of the White House rules on public disclosures and transparency.

"He (Sunstein) is expected to play a major role in the upcoming policy review," Wonderlich said. "I wouldn't be surprised if this promise is on the plate for the reform process."

So this promise may be addressed in coming months. But so far, the White House has not yet delivered on Obama's pledge to make communications about regulatory policymaking available to the public. And so we rate this promise Stalled.