With all the teeth gnashing over cancelled WH tours, I think people are forgetting that there were no tours whatsoever for several years after 9/11/2001.
I'm hoping some people can help refresh my memory on this one. Pre-9/11, tours were open to anyone who happened to be in town and was willing to wait in line. The lines could be rather long during the tourist season. However, during the dead of winter, I remember a few times just walking up to the East Wing entrance and getting an immediate tour.
That all changed after 9/11. I don't think there were any tours at all for four or five years. At some point, tours for very organized groups such as churches, veterans groups, private schools, etc. started up on a small scale.
I don't know when they went to a system of people prearranging tours through congressional offices, but I suspect it was under Obama. Does anyone have any more details?
The main point is, WH tours aren't exactly an American birth rite. The Bush administration had no problem ending them for several years and nobody in Congress complained.