Am headed to DC for business next week. Yes, you have to arrange a White House tour through a member of Congress but ... you have to have your request in six months in advance. Found that out the hard way. There are slight possibilities that you can get in if another Congressman/woman has a cancellation, but that is highly unlikely from what I was told by my Congressman's office. Didn't even help that I work in a "government" related field and we do a ton of work with those on Capitol Hill.