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Draft. Pending review by counsel.

Editorial and AI disclaimer

Last updated November 1, 2026

What a flag means

A flag means only that this section isn’t described by the bill’s title or summary. It is not a claim that the section is wasteful, improper or added for any reason.

We compare the words of each section with the words of the bill’s title and its official summary (or, when there is no summary yet, the bill’s purpose clause or table of contents). That’s all a flag measures. Many flagged sections are reasonable, popular or routine; bills often carry unrelated provisions for ordinary reasons. A flag doesn’t say who wrote a section, why it’s there, or whether anyone did anything wrong.

We don’t say a section “fits” or “doesn’t fit” as a judgment of its merits. Read the exact text, which every flag shows, and judge for yourself.

How AI is used

An AI model (Claude) checks each section and drafts each flag. A person reviews and approves every flag before it’s published.

  • The model isn’t told who sponsored the bill, their party or their state.
  • Each published flag records the date, the rubric version and the AI model used.
  • Nothing the model drafts is published until a person approves it. Reviewers can reject or reword a flag, but only within fixed, fact-only wording.
  • The exact instructions and test set are published on How we decide.

AI models and people both make mistakes. A summary can lag behind the latest text, and a section can be read more than one way. Always check the official text on Congress.gov before relying on a flag.

Corrections and challenges

Anyone can challenge a flag. A reviewer who didn’t approve the original flag looks at it again, and we publish the answer. If we got it wrong, we withdraw or fix the flag and log it on the corrections page. Withdrawn flags keep their link, with a notice explaining why, so nothing disappears quietly. You can also email hello@porkbarrel.ai.

Where the data comes from

  • Congress.gov (Library of Congress): bill text, titles, actions, sponsors and summaries by the Congressional Research Service.
  • GovInfo (US Government Publishing Office): official bill text and public laws.
  • House Clerk roll-call records and Voteview (UCLA) for Senate roll calls.
  • Federal Election Commission bulk files: money PACs and other committees gave to candidates.
  • Planned: USAspending.gov (federal spending) and lobbying disclosures.

These are public-domain US government records. We show them as published and link to the source. Where pages use FEC data, contributor data is shown as totals only, never for solicitation or commercial use.

Votes and PAC money

For some laws we show how each member voted on the final roll call next to the money political action committees gave those members, grouped by industry. These contributions are legal and public. Putting two public records side by side does not show why anyone voted the way they did, and we never claim that a contribution caused a vote. Industry groups come from published keyword rules; some committees are left “Unclassified”. Contributor data is shown as totals only, never for solicitation or commercial use. Some of this is a preview and may be incomplete; check the FEC’s own records before relying on a figure.

The daily puzzle

The daily puzzle uses real laws and their official text. It’s a game for learning how bills change, not a rating of any law or lawmaker. A right or wrong answer says nothing about whether a change was good or bad.

Independence

Porkbarrel.ai is independent. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or paid by any government, agency, member of Congress, political party, campaign or PAC, and we take no money from any of them. The Library of Congress and the Government Publishing Office supply data; they don’t review or endorse our work. Read our neutrality standard.

Ads, sponsors and donations

  • Ads. When we show ads, they are labeled “Advertisement”, appear only on general pages and lists (never next to a flag or inside a bill check), and political and issue ads are blocked. Advertisers don’t see flags before the public and have no say in what we check or how a flag is worded.
  • Sponsors. Newsletter sponsors are labeled “Sponsor”. Every funder, sponsor and advertiser above $1,000 a year is listed on Funding.
  • Donations. We are not yet a tax-exempt organization, and donations are not tax-deductible. Our tax status is pending: we plan to work with a fiscal sponsor or form a 501(c)(3), and we’ll update this note when that happens. Donors have no say in what we check or publish.

Not advice

Nothing on the site is legal, financial or political advice, and nothing here tells you how to vote or asks you to contact any official about any bill. See the Terms of Use.