Behind the record
Sources & updates
Recurring collections, original evidence, and visible coverage limits. A source check is not the date a fact happened or a filing became current.
Data.gov: the directory, not the data warehouse
We use the catalog to locate original agency feeds, including FEC campaign finance, USAspending, and the Federal Register. Collection connects directly to those agencies. Catalog update dates are not treated as 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.
What is · and isn’t · covered
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.
Senate Office of Public Records cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from LDA.gov.