Where Politics gets its information and how current it is
On this page
Politics shows public records and the news about them. Knowing where each part comes from tells you how far to rely on it, where to find the official text, and why a page can trail the official record by a few hours.
#Where each part comes from
| What you see | Where it comes from | How fresh it is |
|---|---|---|
| Roll-call votes and each member's answer | The House Clerk for the House and the U.S. Senate for the Senate | New roll calls appear within about ten minutes of being published. The overview's votes card says when Politics last checked. |
| Bills: status, actions, cosponsors | The Library of Congress, through GovInfo | Refreshed every 15 minutes. |
| Bill summaries | The Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress | Written after a bill is introduced and can trail it by weeks. |
| Members and committees | The congress-legislators project, an open public dataset | Changes rarely; refreshed about once a day. |
| Executive orders, proclamations, rules and proposed rules | The Federal Register | Copied on a schedule, so a document can appear a few hours after it is published. |
| Prediction-market odds | Kalshi and Polymarket | Refreshed every few minutes. Each card says when it was last updated. |
| Headlines and mention counts | The 4Search news index | The overview's news cards cover the last few hours. The counts on In the News cover the last 24 hours, 7 days or 30 days. |
Every Politics page carries a note with the same message: congressional and federal records come from official public sources, are copied on a schedule and may lag the official record by a few hours, and the official sources govern. News and coverage counts reflect what the press published, not 4Search's views, and nothing in Politics is an endorsement of any candidate, party or position.
#Official records and numbers Politics works out
Some of what you see is the government's own record: the votes, the bill's actions, the text of a rule. Some is worked out by Politics from those records:
- Voted with their party, missed and against party, on member pages and in vote tables, are calculated from the roll calls. They are not official statistics.
- Party-line on the Votes page marks votes where most Republicans and most Democrats voted on opposite sides.
- The counts of mentions in the news are totals from the news index.
- AI Briefings are written by AI from the records on the page and recent headlines.
#When Congress is not voting
The House and Senate hold recorded votes only while they are in session. In a recess, no new roll calls appear, and that is not a delay. When neither chamber has voted for three days, the overview says when each chamber last voted. After a week without a vote, the Latest votes in Congress card moves further down the page, so the first thing you see is what is still moving: bills, executive actions and the news.
#When a page looks behind
If something you know about is missing or different:
- Look at the date or the updated note. Market cards say when they were last updated, and the overview's votes card says when Politics last checked for new roll calls.
- Give it a few hours. A page can trail the official record by that much.
- Open the official source. A vote page links to the House Clerk or the Senate, a bill page to Congress.gov, and a rule or an executive order to its Federal Register page.
- Remember the scope. Politics lists recorded roll-call votes, not voice votes, and covers the current Congress only.
To report something that looks wrong, see Contact support.
#Common questions
How current is the data?
It depends on the part. Roll calls usually appear within about ten minutes, bills are refreshed every 15 minutes, market odds every few minutes, and members and committees about once a day. The table above lists each, and every page says the records may lag the official record by a few hours.
Why is a vote or a bill I know about not here yet?
The record may not be published yet, or it may not have been copied yet. Roll calls are listed once the House Clerk or the Senate publishes them. Bill records come from the Library of Congress and can trail by a short while. The official source is always authoritative.
Why do the numbers differ from the official site?
Usually because of timing, or because Politics calculates a figure of its own, such as the share of votes with a member's party. The vote tallies, results and bill actions come from the official records.
Who decides which news appears?
Politics does not pick stories. Headlines come from the news index, which classifies each article, and they are listed by recency or by how well they match. They reflect what the press published, not 4Search's views.
Can I use Politics as the official record?
No. It is a convenient way to find and read the records, and it links to the official source on each page. For anything that depends on exact wording, use the official text.