All tools

Guides

Where do your federal taxes go?

What the government collects, what it spends it on, and how to read a tax receipt honestly.

How to read your pay stub

Every line on a pay stub, in the order it is taken out.

Following the money

Lobbying, campaign donations and contracts: three records, three different questions.

How a bill becomes law

The path through Congress and how to follow a bill yourself.

Data sources and keys

Most tools run entirely in your browser. Representatives reads data files built ahead of time by scripts/build-data.js. Only the tools marked "Live data" (company money trail, bill tracker, election tracker) call public sources through the local server.