How HabibiGov works

Bills often carry sections that have little to do with what the bill says it's for. Some are harmless housekeeping and some are riders. We point them out so you can go read them yourself.

1. Get the bills

Every night we ask the congress.gov API for bills that were introduced or updated recently, and download the newest published text. The text comes as XML that's already split into sections, so we don't have to guess where one section ends.

2. Judge each section against the stated purpose

For every section, a judging model called Jev answers three small questions:

• How closely does this section relate to the bill's official title, on a four-step scale from "directly carries it out" to "unrelated"?
• Does it create, fund or change a program the stated purpose doesn't mention?
• Does it single out a specific named place, company or project?

We compare against the bill's title, not its official summary. The summary describes every section, riders included, so a rider would look on topic next to it.

3. Blend it into a score

Each section gets a sneak score from 0 to 100: 60% from the off-topic answer, 25% from "touches another program," and 15% from "names a specific beneficiary." At 60 or more it's flagged Snuck in, and at 40 or more it's Hmm, maybe. If the judge isn't confident, a "snuck in" gets softened to "maybe." A bill's Snuck-In Meter is driven by its sneakiest section.

4. Explain the flagged ones

For flagged sections only, Claude writes one plain, neutral sentence about what the section does, plus one playful line about the mismatch. The jokes are about the text, never about people or parties.

Things to keep in mind

• "Unrelated" isn't "bad." Lots of off-topic sections are routine or popular. We flag fit, not merit.
• Big bills get broad titles. Something called "for other purposes" can technically cover a lot, so omnibus bills can score lower than you'd expect.
• Huge bills are capped. We check up to the first 150 sections of a bill.
• Robots make mistakes. Every flag links to the real text. Please read it before getting fired up.

Not affiliated with anyone

HabibiGov isn't a government website and isn't affiliated with, endorsed by, or speaking for any government, office, party or official. It's a for-fun project built on public data.