See the facts.
See the record.
Decide for yourself.
We turn the public record into plain language, so you can see what your government is doing and weigh it against what you care about.
Illustrative example
Rep. A. Sample
Sample district
Congress in numbers. Every figure carries its source.
How we work →- 10K+
- ~1 in 20
- 100%
- 33·33·34
What this is for
Is the government working for you?
See the record and decide.
We don’t make the call for you. We show you the record, with the source next to each fact, so you can see for yourself what the people you elected are doing.
Three ways to see what your government is doing.
Understand any bill
What a bill does, who it helps, and who it burdens, in plain language. The original text is one tap away.
Browse bills →Check the record
What each member said on an issue, beside how they voted. We measure the distance and leave the judgment to you.
Browse members →Follow the money
See who funds a bill and who benefits. The ties are laid out for you to weigh.
See the money →How we stay balanced
We disclose our own balance.
A scorecard is only trustworthy if a conservative and a progressive both believe the numbers weren’t cooked. So a panel split across left, center and right reviews the data without knowing its source.
See the reviewer panel →Target reviewer balance
- Self-rated lean. Each reviewer rates their own position before serving, and we publish it.
- Blind review. Reviewers assess the data without knowing its source or sponsor.
- Averaged across groups. Scores average across left, center and right, so no single group sets them.
Every bill in plain language, with the receipts attached.
Affordable Housing Acceleration Act
Speeds up federal financing for new affordable housing and caps some development fees.
Open a bill and you see what it does, who it touches, and where each claim came from. Each one shows its origin: the official summary, the model that drafted the plain-language version, and the last refresh. A modeled estimate is labeled as modeled. A reviewed figure says so.
How we earn trust
Trust is the whole game.
We’d rather show less and be unimpeachable than show more and be doubted.
Provenance on everything
The text version, the model that summarized it, and the last refresh are all shown.
Citations into the bill
Each summary points to the specific provisions it describes.
Derived vs. fetched
An estimate from a model is labeled as an estimate. It is never shown as an official fact.
Salience vs. impact
Media attention and real-world impact are kept visibly apart.
Human review
People audit the data, especially on high-traffic items.
Symmetry checks
The same method for every member, scored against your values. There is no house line.
How neutrality is built in
The rules that keep the math honest, copied from the institutions that set the standard.
Public donor disclosure
Every donor above $5,000 is listed and anonymous funding is capped, following the INN and OpenSecrets standard.
Editorial firewall
No funder reviews or influences our analyses. We refuse directed money.
Balanced panels
Panels are split evenly across left, center and right. Reviewers rate their own lean and review blind.
Government vocabulary
Issue categories follow Congress.gov and the Comparative Agendas codebook.
For funders & partners
Public-interest infrastructure for understanding Congress.
Government data goes in. Plain language comes out, checked by human reviewers and bound by a charter that bars advocacy. We inform; we never advocate.
Read our mission & roadmap →- Congress.gov API
- GovInfo (bulk + API)
- House Clerk + Senate LIS
- FEC OpenFEC
- congress-legislators