Terms of Service
Effective date: September 18th, 2026
Last updated: September 18th, 2026
1. Agreement
These Terms govern your use of The Capitol Ledger at capitolledger.com, operated by Kartik Tyagi ("Capitol Ledger", "we", "us").
By using the site, you agree to these Terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the site.
2. What Capitol Ledger is
Capitol Ledger is an independent civic transparency project. We ingest public U.S. government documents, principally the Congressional Record via GovInfo and legislative data via Congress.gov, and use artificial intelligence to produce summaries, classifications, and analysis intended to make congressional activity easier for the public to follow.
The site is currently a free, read-only publication. There are no user accounts, no subscriptions, and nothing to pay for.
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or authorised by the United States Congress, the Government Publishing Office, the Library of Congress, or any government agency, office, committee, or official.
3. Our content is AI-generated analysis, not the official record
This is the most important section of these Terms. Please read it.
The summaries, classifications, tiers, characterisations, and analysis on Capitol Ledger are generated by artificial intelligence from source documents. They are editorial interpretation, not an authoritative or official account of proceedings.
Specifically:
- The content may contain errors. AI systems can misattribute quotes, misstate figures, conflate separate proceedings, omit material context, and produce confident-sounding statements that are wrong. We test against real documents and work to reduce these failures, but we cannot guarantee accuracy, completeness, or currency.
- The official record governs. Where our analysis differs from the Congressional Record, the Congressional Record is correct and ours is not. We link to source documents so you can check. For any purpose where accuracy matters, verify against the primary source.
- Characterisations are our editorial view, not statements of fact. Where our analysis describes proceedings as dysfunctional, procedurally irregular, consequential, or trivial, or characterises the conduct or motives of any legislator, that is opinion and interpretation, offered as commentary on matters of public concern. It is not an assertion of verifiable fact about any individual.
- Nothing here is professional advice. Our content is not legal, financial, investment, tax, compliance, lobbying, or electoral advice, and must not be relied on as any of those. Do not use it to make trading decisions, legal decisions, or any decision with consequences without independent verification.
- Not voting or campaign guidance. We do not endorse, oppose, or support any candidate, party, campaign, or ballot measure, and our content should not be read as doing so. Our aim is factual legibility, not partisan advocacy.
4. Corrections and feedback
If you believe anything published on Capitol Ledger is inaccurate, particularly anything concerning a named individual, please tell us. Either channel works:
- the feedback form on the site, or
- email us at support@thecapitolledger.com
Use whichever is easier. If the form is unavailable or you get no acknowledgement, the email address is always open and reaches us directly.
Whichever route you use, please include the page URL, what you believe is wrong, and the source that shows the correct position. That lets us verify and fix it quickly.
We take correction requests seriously and will review promptly. Where we find an error, we will correct or remove the content.
This is our preferred route for resolving any accuracy dispute, and we ask that you raise it with us before pursuing other action.
Please don't submit confidential information through the feedback form. Anything you send us as feedback, correction, or suggestion may be used to improve the service without obligation or compensation to you.
5. Acceptable use
You may read, quote, and share our content, and link to it freely. You may not:
- scrape, crawl, or bulk-download the site by automated means, or place unreasonable load on our infrastructure
- attempt to circumvent rate limits or access controls
- probe, scan, or test the security of the site, or interfere with its operation
- use the site or its content to build a competing dataset or to train a machine learning model without our written permission
- reproduce our content in a way that implies it is the official record, that it is endorsed by any government body, or that we endorse you
- submit false, abusive, threatening, or spam content through the feedback form
- use the site to harass, threaten, or defame anyone, or for any unlawful purpose
- remove or obscure attribution, or misrepresent the AI-generated nature of the content when republishing it
We reserve the right to block access, apply rate limits, or remove content that breaches this section.
6. Intellectual property
Government source material. Documents published by the U.S. Government Publishing Office and Congress.gov are generally works of the United States Government and not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Our use of them does not create any claim of ownership over them.
Our content. The summaries, analysis, classifications, editorial framing, design, code, and presentation of Capitol Ledger are ours (or our licensors'), and are protected by copyright. You may quote reasonable excerpts with clear attribution and a link back. You may not republish substantial portions or systematically reproduce the site without permission.
Trademarks. "Capitol Ledger" and our logo are ours. Third-party names and marks belong to their owners.
7. Availability and changes to the service
Capitol Ledger is provided free of charge and on a best-effort basis by a small independent project. We may change, suspend, limit, or discontinue any part of the site at any time and without notice. We do not guarantee uptime, and we may lose data.
We expect to add features over time, including user accounts and other functionality. When we do, these Terms will be updated before those features go live.
8. Age
The site is a public information resource and is not directed at children. Reading it requires nothing from you. If you are under 13, please do not use the feedback form.
9. Third-party links
The site links to external sources, including government sites and news coverage. We don't control those sites and aren't responsible for their content, accuracy, or practices. Visiting them is at your own risk and subject to their terms.
10. Disclaimer of warranties
The site and all content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, and any warranty as to accuracy, reliability, completeness, timeliness, or uninterrupted availability.
We do not warrant that the content is free of errors, that the AI analysis is accurate, or that the site will meet your requirements.
Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties, so parts of this section may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms excludes any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded.
11. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by law:
- We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, or for lost profits, lost data, lost opportunity, or reputational harm, arising from your use of the site, whether or not we were warned such damages were possible.
- We are specifically not liable for any loss arising from reliance on our AI-generated analysis, including any decision made on the basis of a summary, classification, or characterisation that turns out to be inaccurate or incomplete.
- Our total aggregate liability to you for all claims relating to the site is limited to USD $100.
You use this site free of charge, and the limitations above reflect that.
12. Indemnity
You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any claim, loss, liability, or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms, your misuse of the site, or your republication or misrepresentation of our content.
13. Governing law and disputes
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of New York and the federal laws of the United States, without regard to conflict of laws principles. Any dispute will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in The United States of America, New York, and you consent to personal jurisdiction and venue there.
Before starting formal proceedings, you agree to contact us and attempt in good faith to resolve the matter informally for at least 30 days. For accuracy disputes, please use the feedback form described in section 4 first.
14. Changes to these Terms
We may update these Terms as the project develops. The "last updated" date will change, and material changes will be announced on the site. Continued use after a change means you accept the updated Terms.
15. General
If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us regarding the site. We may assign our rights under these Terms in connection with a transfer of the project.
16. Contact
For corrections and feedback, use the feedback form on the site or the email address above.
For questions about personal data, see the contact details in our Privacy Policy.