What is the rationale for requiring White House tours be scheduled through a member of Congress?

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Actually it seems that the ticket distribution moved to Members of Congress only to combat White House Ticket scalping going back to Clinton era.

And then under George W. Bush under the claim that tours are free so noone should profit from it:

''The White House welcomes large numbers of visitors, consistent with previous administrations,'' said the White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer. ''The tours are free. We discourage the practice of having vendors or outside groups make a profit by charging unsuspecting tourists, including any tour that would charge money for access to the White House even as part of a larger tour.''

The unguided tours were still allowed on a first come first served basis by waiting in line:

They recommend that visitors get their feet in the front door by standing in line at the White House Visitors' Center (the line sometimes starts before 5 a.m.) or by contacting their representatives in Congress, who receive tickets for guided tours for their constituents. (The public tours are unguided.)

You can take a look at Wikipedia Article on White House Visitors Office which has a lot of good references on the changes to tours over the years but ticket distribution went completely to Members of Congress in 2003 as an additional "security" measure following the 9/11 attacks.

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