Legislation
Every federal bill, its full statutory text, its letter grade, and the eight scored criteria behind that grade.
Beyond the noise. On the record.
A research instrument for the legislative record.
The Quiet Ledger is a legislative research product. It grades every federal bill on its full statutory text, organizes each member’s activity by fact, and traces campaign money to its source, and it shows the evidence and the methodology behind every number. It exists so that a citizen, a journalist, or an analyst can examine what Congress actually does without wading through noise or taking anyone’s word for it.
What you can examine
The record, in one place
Lawmakers
Each member’s sponsorship, cosponsorship, and factual voting activity, organized by the record rather than a member score.
The record of action
The actions and votes a bill accumulates as it moves, drawn from the official congressional record.
Money and influence
FEC candidates, committees, itemized contributions, and independent expenditures, as reported. Evidence, not causation.
Historical context
Legislation and members across the 115th through 119th Congresses, so a bill or record can be read over time.
How the system works
From the primary record to a grade
The Quiet Ledger is built as a pipeline from the official record to an inspectable grade. Each stage keeps its evidence, so the finished analysis can always be traced back to where it began.
Records come in from official sources
Bills, actions, and votes come from the congressional record; candidates, committees, and filings come from the Federal Election Commission. The Quiet Ledger reads the primary record rather than secondary commentary.
The record is organized into one structure
Bills, members, actions, and filings are connected into a single navigable structure, so a bill links to its sponsors and votes, and a member links to the legislation and money attached to them.
Bills are graded on their text
The frozen methodology scores each bill on its full statutory text across eight criteria. A grade is analysis of what the bill would do, not of who introduced it or which party holds it.
Evidence stays attached to every number
Each grade shows the criteria and the text it rests on; each figure carries its source and the date it was current. You can follow any number back to the record it came from.
How bills are graded
Graded on the text, by a published method
A bill grade is computed from the full statutory text against a fixed rubric. The method is the same for every bill, it does not read party or sponsor, and it is documented in full. The essentials:
- Basis
- Full statutory text
- Criteria
- 8 scored criteria
- Scale
- 90 points, constitutionality double-weighted
- Letter grades
- A at 90%, B at 80%, C at 70%, D at 60%
The rubric, weights, and cut points shown to researchers are exactly the constants the grader uses, and grading is frozen. This page is the summary; the full criteria and guidance live on the methodology page.
View the full methodologyWhy you can trust the record
Provenance, not persuasion
Primary sources, named
Legislation, actions, and votes come from the congressional record; campaign finance comes from FEC filings. The source of each is stated, not paraphrased.
Dated, so freshness is visible
Every figure carries the date it was current. You are never left guessing whether a number is today’s or last year’s.
Methodology, versioned and published
Grades carry the methodology version that produced them, and the methodology itself is documented and frozen. Nothing about a grade is a black box.
Evidence you can inspect
A grade opens onto the criteria and the text behind it. You can follow the evidence to the grade rather than trust the letter on faith.
Free and Pro
Start free, go deeper when you need to
Free account
$0Everything you need to research the record.
- Read every bill grade with its criteria and evidence
- Follow any member’s sponsorship and voting activity
- Search across bills, members, and campaign finance
- Save collections and watchlists in the workspace
TQL Pro
$4.99/moDeeper professional research when the free tier is not enough.
- Deeper analysis. The full eight-criterion grade breakdown and advanced corpus search across grade criteria and legislative structure.
- Advanced money research. Full itemized contribution search, aggregation by employer, occupation, or state, and independent-expenditure research.
- Export and API. Bounded data export for offline analysis and versioned API access to the bills and members record.
Launch pricing through December 31, 2026. See full pricing and plans
Start with the record.
Create a free account to open Bills, Members, Campaign Finance, and Search.