A living directory of the primary data sources and research institutions used in our reporting and analysis. We prioritize primary sources, transparent methodology, and up-to-date releases.
U.S. government data sources
Federal legislative and executive
- Congress.gov — Bill text and summaries, sponsors, committee actions, roll call votes
- Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — Budget analysis, economic projections, cost estimates and scoring
- Government Accountability Office (GAO) — Program evaluations, audits, and federal performance reports
- Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — Budget documents and federal performance resources
- Congressional Research Service (CRS) — Policy research reports (available via congressional offices or EveryCRSReport.com)
- Federal Election Commission (FEC) — Campaign finance filings, enforcement actions, election data
- GovTrack.us — Congressional tracking and analysis tools
- LegiStorm — Congressional staff, salaries, and financial disclosures
Economic data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) — Employment, wages, inflation (CPI), productivity
- Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) — GDP and national accounts, regional economic data
- FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) — Curated time series with download and visualization tools
- U.S. Census Bureau — Demographics, income and poverty, housing, business data
- U.S. Department of the Treasury — Debt data, extraordinary measures, and related updates
Verification and update standards
- Cross-check key stats across at least two credible sources when possible.
- Confirm release dates and note revisions (especially for economic series).
- Link to primary documents (tables, technical notes, methodology pages).
- Prefer transparent methods and clearly documented definitions.
Access notes
- Some sources require accounts, subscriptions, or institutional access. When access is restricted, we link to official public landing pages and note alternatives where available.
The Rational Moderate 