How statements and votes are paired

Some pages place a public statement next to a recorded vote. This page explains the exact, mechanical rule for when that happens — and, just as importantly, what the pairing does and does not claim.

The rule

A statement is paired to a measure only by the measure's bill identifier (for example hr2-119). A statement is shown next to a vote when, and only when, a bill it explicitly names is the bill that vote was on. There is no fuzzy text matching and no interpretation of what a statement was "really about."

The single exception is a formal short title. Because a statement often names a measure by its title rather than its number, a title may be paired — but only when the site's maintainer has explicitly recorded, in a public allowlist, that this exact title corresponds to that exact bill. Nothing is matched by resemblance.

What a pairing means

A pairing places two facts side by side: a statement the member made, quoted verbatim with a link to its source and a permanent archived copy; and a vote the member cast, with the official question and record. That is all it is — adjacency, not a conclusion. The site does not assert that the two agree or disagree, that one caused the other, or that they occurred in any particular order. Readers see the record and draw their own conclusions.

Which statements appear

Every statement is selected and entered by a person, quoted verbatim, and stored only after a permanent public archive of its source has been captured and verified. If that archived copy ever stops resolving, the statement is withheld until it can be re-captured. Statements are never generated, paraphrased, or summarized by an automated process.