About
The project
What this is
Project Curia tracks what members of Congress actually do. Put in a ZIP code and you get yours: how they voted, who paid for their campaigns, whether they trade stocks, which bills they have signed. Every number links back to the record it came from.
It is free and there are no ads.
Why it exists
Polling has shown for years that large majorities of Republicans and Democrats want the same handful of changes. This site keeps track of what Congress does about them, member by member, with the source attached to every claim.
It started as an essay, still here at the paper. The essay asks what we would want our politics to look like with party set aside, then takes three things democracies claim about themselves: that every citizen has an equal say, that voters pick their representatives, and that representatives answer to the people who elected them. It tests each claim against seven specific proposals.
Overturning Citizens United. Disclosure for dark money. Open primaries. An end to gerrymandering. A ban on congressional stock trading. A longer wait before a member of Congress can become a lobbyist. A stop to foreign governments lobbying. Majorities in both parties have backed all seven for years, and Congress has passed none of them. The reforms section has where every member stands on each one.
What you can look at
Congress
The Administration
The executive orders the President signs and what each one changes, the securities the President, Vice President and cabinet disclose, and the money behind the campaign.
The Supreme Court
Elections
The races on this year's ballot, who has filed to run in them, what they have raised, and when your primary and general are.
537 members of Congress. Primary sources, rebuilt every morning.
Who makes it
Project Curia is one person. No newsroom, no funder, no advertising business, no data business, which is why it moves slowly and why nobody here is paid to reach a particular conclusion.
It takes no money from parties, campaigns or advocacy groups, it does not endorse candidates, and it will not tell you how to vote.
If a number looks wrong, write to [email protected]. Fixes go into the underlying data file, so they reach every page the number appears on.
Everything the site compiles is free to reuse, commercial use included, with credit. The data page lists every file.