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CIVIC HERALD

Nonpartisan · primary-sourced · non-advocacy

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 actually doing, and judge it against what you care about.

Illustrative example

Rep. A. Sample

Sample district

● demo data
Housingrecord ≠ stated
said
voted
Schoolsaligned
said
voted
Public safetyrecord ≠ stated
said
voted

The landscape, in numbers — every figure carries its source.

How we work →
10K+
bills introduced per Congress
~1 in 20
bills that become law
100%
of claims carry a source
33·33·34
target reviewer balance

We exist to empower citizens

Is the government working for you?
See the record and decide.

We don’t make the call for you. We hand you the facts — clearly, with receipts — so you can become a more knowledgeable citizen about what those in charge are actually doing.

What we do

Three ways to see what your government is doing.

Understand any bill

What it does, who it helps, who it burdens — in plain language, with the original text one tap away.

Explore bills →

Hold reps accountable

What they promised, beside how they actually voted — the gap measured, not judged.

Browse politicians →

Follow the money

See who funds a bill and who benefits — the ties 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 balanced panel — left, center, right — reviews the data, blind to the source.

See the reviewer cohort →

Target reviewer balance

Left · 33%Center · 33%Right · 34%
  • Self-rated lean — each reviewer rates their own position before they serve, and we publish it.
  • Blind review — reviewers assess the data without knowing the source or sponsor.
  • Averaged across groups — scores average across left, center, and right so no one group sets them.

No storytelling. No editorializing.

Every bill, in plain language — with the receipts attached.

H.R. 4821In committee
98/ 100
match

Affordable Housing Acceleration Act

Streamlines federal financing for new affordable units and caps certain development fees.

4.2M people$11.6BHousing

Open a bill and you see what it does, who it touches, and where every claim came from — 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.

Illustrative example · live figures each carry their own source line

How we earn belief

Trust is the whole game.

We’d rather show less and be unimpeachable than show more and be doubted.

01

Provenance on everything

Text version, the model that summarized it, last refresh — all shown.

02

Citations into the bill

Summaries point back to specific provisions, not vague paraphrases.

03

Derived vs. fetched

A model's estimate never masquerades as an official fact.

04

Salience vs. impact

Media attention and real-world impact are kept visibly apart.

05

Human review

People audit the data, especially on high-traffic items.

06

Symmetry checks

The same method for everyone, against your values — not a house line.

Neutrality is structural, not a slogan

The rules that keep the math honest — copied from the institutions that set the standard.

Public donor disclosure

Every donor above $5,000 listed; anonymous funding capped — the INN / OpenSecrets standard.

Editorial firewall

No funder gets review or influence over our analyses. We refuse directed money.

Balanced cohorts

Panels equal left / center / right, self-rated and reviewing blind.

Government vocabulary

Taxonomy anchored to Congress.gov categories and the Comparative Agendas codebook.

For funders & partners

Public-interest infrastructure for an informed citizenry.

Government data in, plain-language understanding out — human review guarding the integrity, a non-advocacy charter. We inform; we never advocate.

Read our mission & roadmap →

Built on the standard-setters’ sources

  • Congress.gov APIBills · status · CRS summaries
  • GovInfo (bulk + API)Full bill text · structured XML
  • House Clerk + Senate LISRoll-call votes
  • FEC OpenFECCampaign finance
  • congress-legislatorsIdentity crosswalk

All free / public-domain federal sources · state & local to follow