← Downstream · exploratory, not linked from primary nav

The chain of command

The three branches as a hierarchy, plus the voters, firms and researchers outside them who file back in. One bill's path runs across the map from statute to enforcement and back through whoever the rule landed on, and every box is marked by what Downstream holds from it. The trace opens one stage earlier, on the House floor schedule: the only part of this map still ahead of the record rather than in it.

What the marks mean

Every mark means one thing — whether Downstream holds citable documents that body published, not how deep the org chart below it is drawn.

● Observed — the archive holds citable documents this body published

– Silent — we read this body's surface and it published nothing. A finding, not a gap

○ Pending — we don't read this body's surface yet; the box's note names the source that would

◇ Struck — abolished or absorbed; it publishes under a successor now

Article I — Legislative

Article II — Executive

Article III — Judicial

Outside the branches: no vested power

Carried forward — a bill advancing

Sent back — veto, amendment, vacatur, oversight

Filed in: a vote, a comment, a brief, a disclosure

The lit line is one bill's path: statute → rulemaking → comment → litigation → obligation → enforcement → response → oversight. The return leg runs through the people and firms the rule landed on, because that is where the next bill starts. It picks up one stage earlier, at the House floor schedule, posted days ahead, revisable by the House, and drawn with a dashed marker because it is not one of the six links. Click ▶ Trace to run it from the start, and the view zooms and pans to match. Click a box, an arc, drag, or scroll to break off.

Structural map for orientation, not a live org chart — the marks report what Downstream holds, not how complete the map is. as_of 2026-08-21 · seedownstream.com/gov-graph