White House to petitioners: We ARE listening

The Obama administration takes petitions posted to its We the People website seriously and during weekly meetings discusses responses to those that cross the 25,000-signature threshold , officials said.

The response was to a petition snarkily titled Actually Take These Petitions Seriously Instead of Just Using Them as an Excuse to Pretend You Are Listening. It was posted on Oct. 28, 2011, after the first round of White House responses. The reply from White House Digital Strategy Director Macon Phillips was titled We're Listening. Seriously. It outlines several situations in which he said officials have learned about new issues or changed course because of a We the People petition. "No one here at the White House thinks this is perfect" Phillips said in a video embedded in the response. "We think it's the right thing to do. [We're] making sure we're speaking with people about the issues they care about and oftentimes that means issues we aren't currently addressing in our day to day activities."