When a member’s money lines up with their official work

Our software compares a member's money — stock trades, donors, disclosed assets — against their official work, like votes, bills, and committee hearings, and marks the overlaps. Each overlap is a research flag. A flag is a lead to check, never an accusation and never proof that anyone did anything wrong.

Every flag links to the underlying public filings — stock-trade disclosures (PTRs), annual financial disclosures (PFDs), lobbying registrations (LDAs) — or is labeled unverified.

What a flag does not establish. No flag on this page shows that a member broke a law or a rule, that they knew something in advance, or that the money changed anything they did in office. Our software compares records against other records; it cannot see anyone’s reasons. Ordinary explanations are common: members hold index funds, brokers and blind trusts trade without asking first, spouses have their own careers and accounts, a committee’s subject area covers a whole industry, and Congress votes on nearly everything — so almost any date sits near some official action. Each flag below spells out its own limits.

You will see two different strength ratings, and they mean different things. Flag strength says how much weight the check itself deserves — a check that matches easily and often is marked Weak no matter whose name it lands on. Match says how tightly one particular pair of records lined up. Neither is a rating of the person.

• Flag strength: Strong — The two records are matched to each other directly, so the comparison is about the thing it claims to be about. It still says nothing about what anyone knew or intended.
• Flag strength: Moderate — The comparison is accurate, but the link between the two sides is a category or a date range rather than a direct match. Treat it as context.
• Flag strength: Weak — The match is proximity in time, a broad category label, or both. At the scale this runs, findings like these turn up largely by chance and most of them mean nothing.

These entries describe how the software behaves. They do not describe the conduct or state of mind of any member of Congress, their family, or anyone else named in a record.

• Match: Strong — the tightest kind of match our software looks for: the dates were closest, or the money and the official action are directly connected, like a donor testifying to the member’s own committee. Start with the linked filings.
• Match: Moderate — the records line up, but less tightly. Worth a look if you follow this member.
• Match: Weak — a loose match, kept for completeness.

Most flags compare dates against the day a bill was introduced; a few compare them against the day of a vote instead. Each flag says which date it used. Raw files and how we build them: Data Catalog.