Behind the record

Sources & updates

Original sources, refresh status and coverage.

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A source check is not the date a fact happened or a filing became current.

Eight research buckets

Selected, source-linked records are available in every bucket. None is exhaustive. Coverage dates and record-specific qualifications take precedence over this overview.

People: Officials, candidates and professional careers.
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Officials, candidates and selected professional careers. Detailed employment histories, education and state coverage remain incomplete.
Organizations & connections: Organizations and sourced affiliations.
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Organizations and sourced affiliations. Unresolved identities remain separate; a shared employer or affiliation is not proof of contact or influence.
Campaign money: Federal campaign summaries and selected transactions.
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Federal candidate and committee summaries, selected contributions and expenditures. State coverage and transaction history are partial. Overlapping totals are not additive.
Lobbying: Selected federal filings and reporting periods.
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Selected federal filings with source links and reporting periods. Historical backfill and state coverage remain incomplete; income and expenses can overlap.
Policy: Legislation and official records.
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Legislation and official records, including the dated 119th Congress collection. Full text bodies, some source records and broader state history remain gaps.
Government spending: Federal contract and grant obligations.
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Federal agency-level contract and grant obligations for the displayed fiscal period. These are not recipient-level grant awards, cash outlays or all government spending. Unavailable award feeds remain labeled.
Elections & polling: Reviewed elections and polling history.
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Reviewed election records and polling history. Ballot reviews and poll-to-contest links are incomplete; a candidate registration is not a certified ballot.
Business & securities: Selected business careers and SEC filings.
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Selected business careers and source-linked SEC filings on individual profiles. This is a limited cohort, not a complete portfolio, wealth estimate or comprehensive issuer history.

What verification means

Verified means a permitted, reviewed source supports the claim, identity and dates.

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A fact may be marked verified when at least one reviewed, permitted source supports that specific claim and its identity and dates. A second source is not automatically required. Verification does not mean independent corroboration or an exhaustive history.

A source link alone does not mark an unreviewed record verified. Source-reported filings, unresolved identities, conflicting claims and unknown dates retain their own labels. Month or year precision is used when that is all the evidence supports.

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Further research may revise the facts, dates and relationships presented here. A missing record does not establish that no job, payment, affiliation or event existed. Held sources and private information are not made publishable by this disclaimer.

Source discovery

Data.gov helps us find original agency feeds. Records come directly from the agencies.

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We use the catalog to locate FEC campaign finance, USAspending and Federal Register feeds. Catalog update dates are not record publication dates.

Data.gov catalog API documentation. Automated catalog discovery is not enabled without a production API key; the demonstration key is not used for recurring jobs.

Coverage limits

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Political money, lobbying, and contract records are separate evidence sets. A shared name, payment, or reported affiliation is not proof of influence, misconduct, or a verified identity match.

Campaign-finance amounts come from the FEC, not OpenSecrets. Current and previous-cycle federal summaries, leadership PAC sponsors, lobbyist-registered committees, and independent-expenditure notices are connected. Nationwide state campaign finance, complete historical lobbying, beneficial ownership, and verified donor-industry coding are not yet comprehensive.