What can it do for me?
Less digging. More reporting.
Hilltrace pulls a dozen government sources about Congress into one place and keeps them current, so the background work behind a story takes minutes. Here's what that looks like for each part of a newsroom.
Political and Capitol Hill reporters
Walk into every interview, hearing and scrum knowing the member's record.
- See a member's committees, leadership roles and votes on one page before you call their office.
- Find how they voted on any bill since 2013, and whether they broke with their party.
- Know who funds them: PACs by industry and sponsor, outside spending, lobbyist money.
- Get an alert when a member you cover votes or introduces a bill, or a bill you follow moves.
Investigative teams
Start with the leads the records point to, then follow the documents.
- Trade signals flag trades in industries a member's own committees oversee, trades near related votes, late filings and clusters of members trading the same stock.
- Track net worth since a member was first elected, report by report.
- See who lobbied on a bill, which firms they hired, and what lobbyists gave in members' names.
- Follow privately funded trips, official travel abroad, earmarks to home-district recipients and office spending by the businesses paid.
Data desks
Clean, sourced data, ready to analyze.
- Export any list to CSV: members, bills, votes, a member's voting record, a watchlist.
- Use the API (Newsroom Pro and Enterprise) to feed your own tools, graphics and CMS widgets.
- Every record carries its government source, so your methodology note writes itself.
- Leaderboards for campaign money, office spending and earmarks to find the outliers fast.
TV and radio producers and bookers
Prep a segment or a guest in minutes.
- Before a guest goes on air: their committees, key votes, money and anything newsworthy in their disclosures.
- Ask the research assistant in plain English ("How did the Ohio delegation vote on the farm bill?") and get a cited answer.
- Share a watchlist across the show so the whole team sees the same alerts.
- Pull the numbers a graphic needs, with sources the standards desk can check.
Editors and news directors
One tool for the whole desk, with the controls you need.
- Add your team and choose who is an admin. Each person signs in with two-step verification.
- Shared watchlists and notes keep the desk on the same page; private ones stay private.
- An audit log records team and export activity for your newsroom.
- Your logo at the top of the workspace, and a newsroom profile your team recognizes.
Questions newsrooms ask
Who can use Hilltrace?
News organizations and their staff: newspapers, broadcasters, digital newsrooms, wires, magazines and nonprofit newsrooms. Federal law allows financial disclosure reports to be used commercially only by news and communications media, so we check every newsroom before turning it on.
Where does the data come from, and how current is it?
Straight from the government: Congress.gov, the Clerk of the House, the Secretary of the Senate, GovInfo, the FEC, the Senate Office of Public Records (lobbying), SEC EDGAR, the House Appropriations Committee and the House Statement of Disbursements. Most sources are checked daily or hourly, and every record links to the document it came from.
Does Hilltrace say a member did something wrong?
No. Hilltrace shows what the record says. Signals point to things worth a reporter's look, each with its reason and our published method, and they're leads, not findings.
Is our research private?
Yes. We never record what your reporters search for. Notes and research-assistant conversations are encrypted, private notes are visible only to their author, and each newsroom's work is walled off from every other.
Does it cover the Senate?
Profiles, committees, votes, bills, campaign money and lobbying cover both chambers. Senate financial disclosures are added as the Senate's site allows. Travel, office spending and earmarks cover the House today.
What does it cost?
Plans are priced by newsroom and number of users. Start with a free 15-day trial and we'll talk through what fits.