President Barack Obama's first public act in office has been to institute new limits on lobbyists in the White House and to freeze the salaries of highly-paid aides.
Announcing the moves while attending a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to swear in his staff, Mr Obama said the steps "represent a clean break from business as usual".
The pay freeze will hold salaries at their current levels for the roughly 100 White House employees who make more than $100,000 (£70,0000) a year.
"Families are tightening their belts and so should Washington," said the new president, taking office amid startlingly bad economic times which many fear will grow worse.
Those affected by the freeze include the high-profile jobs of White House chief of staff, national security adviser and press secretary. Other aides who work in relative anonymity also would fit into that group if Obama follows a structure similar to the one set up by his predecessor George W Bush.
Mr Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will also be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.
The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration and state that anyone who leaves his administration is not allowed to try to influence former friends and colleagues for at least two years.
Mr Obama called the rules tighter "than under any other administration in history." They followed pledges during his campaign to be strict about the influence of lobbyist in his White House.
In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, Mr Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act, directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public and not to look for reasons to legally withhold it.
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He said: "These historic measures do mark the beginning of a new era of openness in our country. And I will, I hope, do something to make government trustworthy in the eyes of the American people, in the days and weeks, months and years to come."
