A watchdog group's repeated lawsuits have prompted the administration to release the names of all White House visitors, an unprecedented step. The White House announced this morning that lists of visitors would be posted online every month, covering the previous 90 to 120 days.

"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside it," President Obama said in a statement. "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

During the Bush administration, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a transparency watchdog group, sued for access to records concerning visits by lobbyist Stephen Payne and conservative Christian leaders. Since Obama took office, the group has continued filing suits for access to records detailing visits by health care and coal executives.

The group said the information should be made available under the Freedom of Information Act, but the White House originally maintained that the visitor logs were presidential records, not public information.

In July, the White House released a list of health care executives who had visited the White House, but CREW continued pushing for full disclose of the visitor lists. The group has now dropped its lawsuits and is pleased with the White House's new policy.

"The Obama administration has proven its pledge to usher in a new era of government transparency was more than just a campaign promise," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said in a statement. "The Bush administration fought tooth and nail to keep secret the identities of those who visited the White House."

The new policy will apply to records kept after Sept. 15, and the first online list is expected to be posted in December. The White House also released the information requested by CREW in the suits from both the Bush and Obama administrations.