{ "schema_version": 1, "as_of": "2026-08-21", "count": 209, "categories": [ { "id": "proc", "title": "Floor procedure" }, { "id": "ident", "title": "Bills, versions, and identifiers" }, { "id": "approp", "title": "Appropriations and budget" }, { "id": "admin", "title": "Administrative law and rulemaking" }, { "id": "doctrine", "title": "Doctrine" }, { "id": "draft", "title": "Drafting and construction" }, { "id": "inst", "title": "Institutions" }, { "id": "influence", "title": "Influence and disclosure" }, { "id": "housing", "title": "Housing" }, { "id": "house", "title": "Downstream's own terms" } ], "aliases": { "218 signatures": "discharge-petition", "21st century road to housing act": "road-to-housing-act", "30% ami": "ami", "302(a)": "302-b", "302(b) allocation": "302-b", "60 legislative days": "lookback-window", "60% ami": "ami", "60-vote threshold": "filibuster", "a&c": "arbitrary-and-capricious", "ada violation": "antideficiency-act", "additional referral": "sequential-referral", "administrative procedure act": "apa", "advance notice of proposed rulemaking": "anprm", "advisory committee": "federal-advisory-committee", "agency acronyms": "agency-acronyms", "airdrop": "scope-of-conference", "amendment between houses": "amendment-between-houses", "amends the definition of": "definitional-amendment", "ami": "ami", "amici": "amicus-brief", "amicus": "amicus-brief", "amicus brief": "amicus-brief", "amicus curiae": "amicus-brief", "anomaly": "anomaly", "anprm": "anprm", "answer present": "present-vote", "antideficiency act": "antideficiency-act", "apa": "apa", "applicability date": "applicability-date", "applies to": "applicability-date", "apportionment": "apportionment", "apportionment schedule": "apportionment", "appropriation": "appropriation", "appropriations act": "appropriation", "approps": "appropriation", "arbitrary and capricious": "arbitrary-and-capricious", "area median income": "ami", "article iii standing": "standing", "as amended": "as-amended", "as amended by": "as-amended", "as defined in": "cross-reference", "as of": "as-of", "as of right": "by-right-zoning", "as-of discipline": "point-in-time", "as_of": "as-of", "as_of date": "as-of", "asof": "as-of", "auer / kisor": "auer-kisor", "auer deference": "auer-kisor", "authorization": "authorization", "authorization of appropriations": "authorization", "authorization-appropriation gap": "authorization-appropriation-gap", "authorized but not appropriated": "authorization-appropriation-gap", "authorizing legislation": "authorization", "available until expended": "no-year-money", "ba": "budget-authority", "base rate": "base-rate", "baseline": "cbo-baseline", "bill status xml": "billstatus", "bill version codes": "bill-version-codes", "billstatus": "billstatus", "bioguide": "bioguide-id", "bioguide id": "bioguide-id", "bioguideid": "bioguide-id", "bitemporal": "bitemporal", "bitemporal storage": "bitemporal", "blanket hold": "hold", "blast radius": "blast-radius", "brier": "brier-score", "brier score": "brier-score", "btr": "build-to-rent", "budget authority": "budget-authority", "budget reconciliation": "reconciliation", "budget resolution": "budget-resolution", "build-to-rent": "build-to-rent", "bulk data": "govinfo", "by right": "by-right-zoning", "by unanimous consent": "unanimous-consent", "by-right zoning": "by-right-zoning", "byrd bath": "byrd-rule", "byrd casualty": "byrd-rule", "byrd drop": "byrd-rule", "byrd rule": "byrd-rule", "c.f.r.": "cfr", "cabinet department": "department-vs-independent-agency", "calibrated": "calibration", "calibration": "calibration", "calibration curve": "calibration", "categorical exclusion": "categorical-exclusion", "catex": "categorical-exclusion", "cbo": "cbo", "cbo baseline": "cbo-baseline", "cdbg": "cdbg", "cdbg disaster recovery": "cdbg-dr", "cdbg-dr": "cdbg-dr", "ce": "categorical-exclusion", "cert": "certiorari", "cert denied": "certiorari", "cert granted": "certiorari", "cert petition": "certiorari", "certiorari": "certiorari", "cfpb": "agency-acronyms", "chairman's mark": "markup", "chevron": "chevron", "chevron deference": "chevron", "christmas tree": "christmas-tree-bill", "christmas tree bill": "christmas-tree-bill", "circuit split": "circuit-split", "clause": "provision", "clearing the bill": "hotline", "client": "registrant", "cll": "conforming-loan-limit", "closed rule": "special-rule", "cloture": "cloture", "cloture motion": "cloture", "cloture ripens": "cloture", "cms": "agency-acronyms", "code of federal regulations": "cfr", "codified": "us-code", "comment campaign": "mass-comment", "committee markup": "markup", "committee report": "report-language", "community development block grant": "cdbg", "community project funding": "earmark", "compliance date": "compliance-date", "concur with amendment": "amendment-between-houses", "concurrent resolution": "concurrent-resolution", "concurrent resolution on the budget": "budget-resolution", "conference": "conference-committee", "conference committee": "conference-committee", "conference report": "conference-committee", "conflict preemption": "preemption", "conflicting circuits": "circuit-split", "conforming amendment": "conforming-amendment", "conforming changes": "conforming-amendment", "conforming limit": "conforming-loan-limit", "conforming loan limit": "conforming-loan-limit", "congressional budget office": "cbo", "congressional research service": "crs", "congressional review act": "congressional-review-act", "congressionally directed spending": "earmark", "contingent effectiveness": "trigger", "contingent unfunded": "contingent-unfunded", "continuing resolution": "continuing-resolution", "cooling-off period": "revolving-door", "corner post": "corner-post", "cost estimate": "scorekeeping", "cr": "continuing-resolution", "cr anomaly": "anomaly", "cra": "congressional-review-act", "cra lookback": "lookback-window", "cra resolution": "congressional-review-act", "cromnibus": "omnibus", "cross-reference": "cross-reference", "cross-reference blast radius": "blast-radius", "crs": "crs", "crs report": "crs", "current-law baseline": "cbo-baseline", "cutgo": "paygo", "date of compliance": "compliance-date", "days after enactment": "deadline-anchor", "dcl": "dear-colleague-letter", "deadline anchor": "deadline-anchor", "dear colleague letter": "dear-colleague-letter", "deem and pass": "self-executing-rule", "deferral": "deferral", "deferral of budget authority": "deferral", "definition change": "definitional-amendment", "definitional amendment": "definitional-amendment", "delegated authority": "delegation", "delegation": "delegation", "designated as an emergency requirement": "emergency-designation", "dfr": "direct-final-rule", "direct final rule": "direct-final-rule", "direct spending": "mandatory", "disaster recovery": "cdbg-dr", "disbursement": "outlay", "discharge": "discharge-petition", "discharge petition": "discharge-petition", "discretionary funding": "discretionary", "discretionary spending": "discretionary", "docket id": "docket-id", "docket number": "docket-id", "doe": "agency-acronyms", "dol": "agency-acronyms", "dot": "agency-acronyms", "duplicate comments": "mass-comment", "earmark": "earmark", "ebsa": "agency-acronyms", "ecfr": "ecfr", "economically significant": "significant-rule", "ed": "agency-acronyms", "effective": "effective-date", "effective date": "effective-date", "eh": "bill-version-codes", "eis / ea / fonsi": "eis", "electronic cfr": "ecfr", "emergency designation": "emergency-designation", "emergency supplemental": "supplemental", "en bloc": "en-bloc", "en bloc amendment": "en-bloc", "engrossed": "engrossment", "engrossed bill": "engrossment", "engrossment": "engrossment", "enr": "bill-version-codes", "enrolled": "enrollment", "enrolled bill": "enrollment", "enrollment": "enrollment", "entitlement spending": "mandatory", "environmental assessment": "eis", "environmental impact statement": "eis", "environmental review": "nepa", "eo 12866": "eo-12866", "eo 12866 review": "oira-review", "epa": "agency-acronyms", "es": "bill-version-codes", "executive department versus independent agency": "department-vs-independent-agency", "executive order 12866": "eo-12866", "expiration date": "sunset", "expires": "sunset", "explanatory statement": "report-language", "exposure": "exposure", "exposures": "exposure", "express preemption": "preemption", "extraneous matter": "byrd-rule", "extremely low income": "income-limits", "faca": "federal-advisory-committee", "fair market rent": "fmr", "fair market rents": "fmr", "fannie mae": "gse", "faq": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "fara": "fara", "fdic": "agency-acronyms", "federal advisory committee": "federal-advisory-committee", "federal advisory committee act": "federal-advisory-committee", "federal home loan bank": "gse", "federal register": "federal-register", "fema": "agency-acronyms", "fha": "agency-acronyms", "fhfa": "agency-acronyms", "fhwa": "agency-acronyms", "field preemption": "preemption", "filibuster": "filibuster", "final regulation": "final-rule", "final rule": "final-rule", "finding of no significant impact": "eis", "fitness for review": "ripeness", "fmr": "fmr", "foreign agents registration act": "fara", "form comments": "mass-comment", "fr": "federal-register", "frb": "agency-acronyms", "freddie mac": "gse", "friend of the court": "amicus-brief", "fta": "agency-acronyms", "full-year cr": "continuing-resolution", "gao": "gao", "germane": "germaneness", "germaneness": "germaneness", "ginnie mae": "ginnie-mae", "gnma": "ginnie-mae", "go to conference": "conference-committee", "good cause": "good-cause-exception", "good cause exception": "good-cause-exception", "government accountability office": "gao", "government corporation": "government-corporation", "government national mortgage association": "ginnie-mae", "government-sponsored enterprise": "gse", "govinfo": "govinfo", "gpo govinfo": "govinfo", "gse": "gse", "guidance document": "guidance-document", "h.con.res.": "concurrent-resolution", "h.j.res.": "joint-resolution", "h.r. 6644": "road-to-housing-act", "h.res.": "simple-resolution", "hard look": "hard-look", "hard look review": "hard-look", "hcv": "housing-choice-voucher", "hereby adopted": "self-executing-rule", "hhs": "agency-acronyms", "hold": "hold", "home": "home-program", "home investment partnerships program": "home-program", "hotline": "hotline", "hotlined": "hotline", "housing authority": "pha", "housing choice voucher": "housing-choice-voucher", "housing credit": "lihtc", "housing trust fund": "housing-trust-fund", "hr1 problem": "identifier-collision", "htf": "housing-trust-fund", "hud": "agency-acronyms", "hud code": "hud-code", "hud income limits": "income-limits", "ica": "impoundment", "icpsr id": "icpsr", "icpsr number": "icpsr", "identifier collision": "identifier-collision", "if funds are made available": "subject-to-appropriations", "ifr": "interim-final-rule", "ih": "bill-version-codes", "implied right of action": "private-right-of-action", "impoundment": "impoundment", "impoundment control act": "impoundment", "in-house": "registrant", "income limits": "income-limits", "independent agency": "department-vs-independent-agency", "independent regulatory commission": "independent-regulatory-commission", "informal rulemaking": "notice-and-comment", "injury in fact": "standing", "instructions": "reconciliation-instructions", "intelligible principle": "nondelegation", "interim final rule": "interim-final-rule", "interim rule": "interim-final-rule", "interpretive rule": "guidance-document", "invoke cloture": "cloture", "irc": "independent-regulatory-commission", "irs": "agency-acronyms", "is": "bill-version-codes", "is authorized to": "shall-vs-may", "issue text": "specific-issue-text", "jarkesy": "jarkesy", "jct": "jct", "jct estimate": "jct-estimate", "joint committee on taxation": "jct", "joint committee on taxation score": "jct-estimate", "joint resolution": "joint-resolution", "kisor": "auer-kisor", "layer 1": "layer-1", "layer 2": "layer-2", "ld-1": "lda-filing", "ld-2": "lda-filing", "lda filing": "lda-filing", "ledger": "the-ledger", "ledger entry": "the-ledger", "legislative rider": "rider", "legislative vehicle": "vehicle", "lha": "pha", "lihtc": "lihtc", "lineage id": "lineage-id", "lineageid": "lineage-id", "live quorum": "quorum", "lobbying disclosure act": "lda-filing", "lobbying firm": "registrant", "lookback window": "lookback-window", "loper": "loper-bright", "loper bright": "loper-bright", "low-income housing tax credit": "lihtc", "major questions doctrine": "major-questions", "manager's amendment": "managers-amendment", "managers amendment": "managers-amendment", "manam": "managers-amendment", "mandatory spending": "mandatory", "manufactured home construction and safety standards": "hud-code", "manufactured housing": "hud-code", "mark up": "markup", "markup": "markup", "mass comment campaign": "mass-comment", "may": "shall-vs-may", "mechanism taxonomy": "mechanism-type", "mechanism type": "mechanism-type", "member-directed spending": "earmark", "message between houses": "amendment-between-houses", "minibus": "omnibus", "ministerial approval": "by-right-zoning", "motion to proceed": "motion-to-proceed", "motion to recommit": "motion-to-recommit", "moving to work": "mtw", "mqd": "major-questions", "mtp": "motion-to-proceed", "mtr": "motion-to-recommit", "mtw": "mtw", "mtw cohort": "mtw", "multi-member commission": "independent-regulatory-commission", "multiple referral": "sequential-referral", "must-pass": "vehicle", "national environmental policy act": "nepa", "national housing trust fund": "housing-trust-fund", "ncua": "agency-acronyms", "negative space": "negative-space", "nepa": "nepa", "never implemented": "orphaned-delegation", "nist": "agency-acronyms", "no observable action": "silent", "no-year funds": "no-year-money", "no-year money": "no-year-money", "non-germane amendment": "germaneness", "non-positive title": "positive-law-codification", "nondelegation doctrine": "nondelegation", "not later than": "deadline-anchor", "nothing in this section shall be construed": "savings-clause", "notice and comment": "notice-and-comment", "notice of proposed rulemaking": "nprm", "notwithstanding any other provision of law": "notwithstanding", "notwithstanding clause": "notwithstanding", "nprm": "nprm", "obligated": "obligation", "obligation": "obligation", "obligation rate": "obligation", "obligation strength": "shall-vs-may", "obstacle preemption": "preemption", "occ": "agency-acronyms", "office of information and regulatory affairs": "oira", "office of management and budget": "omb", "oira": "oira", "oira review": "oira-review", "omb": "omb", "omb apportionment": "apportionment", "omb control number": "paperwork-reduction-act", "omb review": "oira-review", "omnibus": "omnibus", "open rule": "special-rule", "ordered reported": "ordered-reported", "orphan delegation": "orphaned-delegation", "orphaned delegation": "orphaned-delegation", "out of scope": "scope-of-conference", "outlay": "outlay", "outlays": "outlay", "override": "veto-override", "paperwork reduction act": "paperwork-reduction-act", "parliamentarian": "parliamentarian", "passed under suspension": "suspension-of-the-rules", "pay-as-you-go": "paygo", "paygo": "paygo", "pbra": "pbra", "pcs": "bill-version-codes", "pha": "pha", "ping-pong": "amendment-between-houses", "pit": "point-in-time", "pl": "public-law", "place a hold": "hold", "placed on the calendar": "rule-xiv", "pocket rescission": "pocket-rescission", "pocket veto": "pocket-veto", "pocketed": "pocket-veto", "point of order": "point-of-order", "point-in-time": "point-in-time", "policy rider": "rider", "policy statement": "guidance-document", "positive law codification": "positive-law-codification", "positive law title": "positive-law-codification", "post-employment restriction": "revolving-door", "pra": "paperwork-reduction-act", "pra (private right of action)": "private-right-of-action", "pre-enforcement challenge": "ripeness", "preempt": "preemption", "preemption": "preemption", "present": "present-vote", "private right of action": "private-right-of-action", "proceed to the bill": "motion-to-proceed", "program instruction": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "project-based rental assistance": "pbra", "project-based section 8": "pbra", "proposed rule": "nprm", "provision": "provision", "provision id": "provision-id", "provisionid": "provision-id", "provisionmechanism": "mechanism-type", "pub. l.": "public-law", "public housing agency": "pha", "public law": "public-law", "public law number": "public-law", "qap": "qap", "qualified allocation plan": "qap", "quarterly filing": "lda-filing", "quorum": "quorum", "quorum call": "quorum", "rad": "rad", "raise a point of order": "point-of-order", "rd": "agency-acronyms", "rds": "bill-version-codes", "reconciliation": "reconciliation", "reconciliation bill": "reconciliation", "reconciliation directive": "reconciliation-instructions", "reconciliation instructions": "reconciliation-instructions", "recorded vote": "roll-call-vote", "reference class": "base-rate", "reference to another section": "cross-reference", "registrant and client": "registrant", "regs.gov": "regulations-gov", "regulation identifier number": "rin", "regulations.gov": "regulations-gov", "regulations.gov docket": "docket-id", "regulatory agenda": "unified-agenda", "regulatory flexibility act": "regulatory-flexibility-act", "remand without vacatur": "remand-without-vacatur", "remanded without vacatur": "remand-without-vacatur", "rental assistance demonstration": "rad", "report language": "report-language", "reported favorably": "ordered-reported", "reported out": "ordered-reported", "reprogramming": "reprogramming", "reprogramming action": "reprogramming", "rescission": "rescission", "rescission proposal": "rescission", "rescissions package": "rescission", "resolution criteria": "resolution-query", "resolution query": "resolution-query", "resolver": "resolution-query", "resurfaced": "zombie-provision", "revenue estimate": "jct-estimate", "revolving door": "revolving-door", "rfa": "regulatory-flexibility-act", "rfs": "bill-version-codes", "rh": "bill-version-codes", "rhs": "agency-acronyms", "rider": "rider", "rin": "rin", "ripeness": "ripeness", "road act": "road-to-housing-act", "road to housing act": "road-to-housing-act", "roll call number": "roll-call-number", "roll call vote": "roll-call-vote", "roll number": "roll-call-number", "rs": "bill-version-codes", "rule 14": "rule-xiv", "rule from rules": "special-rule", "rule of construction": "savings-clause", "rule xiv": "rule-xiv", "s. 2651": "road-to-housing-act", "s.con.res.": "concurrent-resolution", "s.j.res.": "joint-resolution", "s.res.": "simple-resolution", "savings clause": "savings-clause", "sba": "agency-acronyms", "scope of conference": "scope-of-conference", "score": "scorekeeping", "scorekeeping": "scorekeeping", "scoring": "scorekeeping", "sec": "agency-acronyms", "secret hold": "hold", "section": "provision", "section 3(f)(1)": "significant-rule", "section 553": "notice-and-comment", "section 8": "section-8", "self-executing rule": "self-executing-rule", "semiannual agenda": "unified-agenda", "senate parliamentarian": "parliamentarian", "sequential referral": "sequential-referral", "session laws": "statutes-at-large", "severability": "severability", "severability clause": "severability", "severable": "severability", "sfr": "build-to-rent", "shall": "shall-vs-may", "shall versus may": "shall-vs-may", "shell bill": "vehicle", "significant": "significant-rule", "significant regulatory action": "significant-rule", "silent": "silent", "silent filibuster": "filibuster", "simple resolution": "simple-resolution", "single-family rental": "build-to-rent", "skidmore deference": "skidmore", "skidmore respect": "skidmore", "slip": "slip-law", "slip law": "slip-law", "small entity analysis": "regulatory-flexibility-act", "special rule": "special-rule", "specific issue text": "specific-issue-text", "specific lobbying issues": "specific-issue-text", "split": "circuit-split", "ssan": "such-sums", "standing": "standing", "stat.": "statutes-at-large", "state farm review": "arbitrary-and-capricious", "statutes at large": "statutes-at-large", "statutory paygo": "paygo", "stopgap": "continuing-resolution", "structured rule": "special-rule", "sub-regulatory guidance": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "suballocation": "302-b", "subject to appropriations": "subject-to-appropriations", "subject to the availability of appropriations": "subject-to-appropriations", "subregulatory guidance": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "substantially the same": "substantially-the-same", "such sums": "such-sums", "such sums as may be necessary": "such-sums", "sunset": "sunset", "sunset provision": "sunset", "supplemental": "supplemental", "supplemental appropriation": "supplemental", "suspension": "suspension-of-the-rules", "suspension of the rules": "suspension-of-the-rules", "sustained": "point-of-order", "talking filibuster": "filibuster", "taxable years beginning after": "applicability-date", "technical amendment": "technical-amendment", "technical and conforming": "conforming-amendment", "technical correction": "technical-amendment", "tenant-based": "housing-choice-voucher", "tenant-based assistance": "section-8", "the cfr": "cfr", "the chair's advice": "parliamentarian", "the code": "us-code", "the corpus": "layer-1", "the forecasting engine": "layer-2", "the ledger": "the-ledger", "the model": "layer-2", "the register": "federal-register", "the roll": "roll-call-vote", "the rule": "special-rule", "the secretary shall": "delegation", "the statutory graph": "layer-1", "transaction time": "bitemporal", "transfer": "transfer-authority", "transfer authority": "transfer-authority", "transmittal": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "trigger": "trigger", "trigger event": "trigger", "two-step": "chevron", "two-thirds": "suspension-of-the-rules", "two-thirds of both houses": "veto-override", "u.s.c.": "us-code", "uc": "unanimous-consent", "uc agreement": "unanimous-consent", "umra": "umra", "unanimous consent": "unanimous-consent", "unfunded authorization": "authorization-appropriation-gap", "unfunded mandate": "umra", "unfunded mandates reform act": "umra", "unified agenda": "unified-agenda", "united states code": "us-code", "united states legislative markup": "uslm", "upon a determination that": "trigger", "usda": "agency-acronyms", "uslm": "uslm", "uslm xml": "uslm", "va": "agency-acronyms", "vacate the rule": "vacatur", "vacated": "vacatur", "vacatur": "vacatur", "valid time": "bitemporal", "vehicle": "vehicle", "very low income": "income-limits", "veto override": "veto-override", "vintaged": "point-in-time", "vote number": "roll-call-number", "voting present": "present-vote", "voucher": "housing-choice-voucher", "waived": "point-of-order", "what didn't pass": "negative-space", "what was struck": "negative-space", "wholly owned government corporation": "government-corporation", "writ of certiorari": "certiorari", "yeas and nays": "roll-call-vote", "zombie": "zombie-provision", "zombie provision": "zombie-provision", "zombie tracker": "zombie-provision" }, "entries": [ { "id": "amendment-between-houses", "term": "Amendment between houses", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "ping-pong", "message between houses", "concur with amendment" ], "short": "The modern substitute for a conference committee.", "text": "The modern substitute for a conference committee. Each chamber amends the other's text and sends it back until one chamber concurs. Produces a chain of recorded votes on motions to concur, not on passage.", "note": "This is where the vote record gets misread most often. `Motion to concur in the Senate amendment` is the operative final vote in a ping-pong, and it is not labeled *passage* anywhere. H.R. 6644 went through five of these.", "see_also": [ "conference-committee", "engrossment", "roll-call-vote" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#amendment-between-houses" }, { "id": "byrd-rule", "term": "Byrd rule", "category": "proc", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 644", "aliases": [ "Byrd bath", "Byrd drop", "Byrd casualty", "extraneous matter" ], "short": "Bars extraneous matter from a reconciliation bill on a point of order that takes 60 votes to waive.", "text": "Bars extraneous matter from a reconciliation bill on a point of order that takes 60 votes to waive. Six tests, the operative ones being that a provision must change outlays or revenues, and that its budgetary effect must not be merely incidental to its policy effect. The pre-floor scrub with the Parliamentarian is the Byrd bath; a provision struck is a Byrd drop or Byrd casualty.", "note": "A Byrd drop is the single highest-signal event in the corpus. The provision was drafted, negotiated, and adopted by a majority, and removed on a technicality — so its probability of resurfacing in the next available vehicle is far above the base rate for a provision that simply failed. Tag them at ingestion, not later.", "see_also": [ "reconciliation", "parliamentarian", "zombie-provision", "point-of-order" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#byrd-rule" }, { "id": "christmas-tree-bill", "term": "Christmas tree bill", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Christmas tree" ], "short": "A vehicle that has accumulated so many unrelated riders that its title no longer describes it.", "text": "A vehicle that has accumulated so many unrelated riders that its title no longer describes it. Historically the year-end omnibus.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "rider", "omnibus" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#christmas-tree-bill" }, { "id": "cloture", "term": "Cloture", "category": "proc", "cite": "Senate Rule XXII", "aliases": [ "cloture motion", "invoke cloture", "cloture ripens" ], "short": "The only way to end Senate debate over objection.", "text": "The only way to end Senate debate over objection. Requires 60 votes on most legislation, a simple majority on nominations. Filed, then ripens after an intervening day, then a vote, then up to 30 further hours of post-cloture debate.", "note": "Cloture votes are recorded votes that are routinely misreported as passage votes. `89-10 on cloture` and `89-10 on passage` are different facts about different questions. Always read the `question` field, never infer it from the tally.", "see_also": [ "filibuster", "motion-to-proceed", "roll-call-vote" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cloture" }, { "id": "conference-committee", "term": "Conference committee", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "conference", "conference report", "go to conference" ], "short": "A joint House-Senate panel that reconciles two versions into one text, reported back as a conference report that cannot be amended.", "text": "A joint House-Senate panel that reconciles two versions into one text, reported back as a conference report that cannot be amended. Now uncommon; ping-pong has largely replaced it.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "amendment-between-houses", "scope-of-conference" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#conference-committee" }, { "id": "discharge-petition", "term": "Discharge petition", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "discharge", "218 signatures" ], "short": "The House mechanism for forcing a bill out of a committee that will not report it.", "text": "The House mechanism for forcing a bill out of a committee that will not report it. Requires 218 signatures, which are public. Rarely succeeds; the signature list is a strong revealed preference even when it fails.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "markup", "special-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#discharge-petition" }, { "id": "en-bloc", "term": "En bloc", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "en bloc amendment" ], "short": "Multiple amendments considered and adopted as one.", "text": "Multiple amendments considered and adopted as one. Same provenance problem as a manager's amendment, at smaller scale.", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#en-bloc" }, { "id": "engrossment", "term": "Engrossment", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "engrossed", "engrossed bill" ], "short": "The official preparation of a bill's text as passed by one chamber.", "text": "The official preparation of a bill's text as passed by one chamber. The engrossed version is the authoritative record of what that chamber actually agreed to.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "bill-version-codes", "enrollment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#engrossment" }, { "id": "enrollment", "term": "Enrollment", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "enrolled", "enrolled bill" ], "short": "The final text agreed to by both chambers, signed by the Speaker and the President of the Senate, and presented to the President.", "text": "The final text agreed to by both chambers, signed by the Speaker and the President of the Senate, and presented to the President. This is the only version that becomes law.", "note": "Extracting from `eh` rather than `enr` is the single most common silent error in this domain. Everything before enrollment is a draft, and drafts differ.", "see_also": [ "bill-version-codes", "public-law", "slip-law" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#enrollment" }, { "id": "filibuster", "term": "Filibuster", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "talking filibuster", "silent filibuster", "60-vote threshold" ], "short": "Extended or threatened debate used to prevent a vote.", "text": "Extended or threatened debate used to prevent a vote. In modern practice almost never actual speech — the mere signal that cloture would be needed sets a de facto 60-vote threshold on most legislation.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cloture", "hold", "reconciliation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#filibuster" }, { "id": "germaneness", "term": "Germaneness", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "germane", "non-germane amendment" ], "short": "Whether an amendment is sufficiently related to the underlying bill.", "text": "Whether an amendment is sufficiently related to the underlying bill. Strictly enforced in the House; largely absent in the Senate outside post-cloture and reconciliation, which is why Senate bills accumulate unrelated riders.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "rider", "special-rule", "byrd-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#germaneness" }, { "id": "hold", "term": "Hold", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "place a hold", "blanket hold", "secret hold" ], "short": "A senator's notice to leadership that they will object to unanimous consent.", "text": "A senator's notice to leadership that they will object to unanimous consent. Informal, not in the rules, and effective: it converts a matter that would have passed in minutes into one requiring cloture and days of floor time.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "unanimous-consent", "hotline" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#hold" }, { "id": "hotline", "term": "Hotline", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "hotlined", "clearing the bill" ], "short": "Leadership's process for polling every office for objections before attempting unanimous consent.", "text": "Leadership's process for polling every office for objections before attempting unanimous consent. A bill that clears the hotline passes without a vote.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "unanimous-consent", "hold" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#hotline" }, { "id": "managers-amendment", "term": "Manager's amendment", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "managers amendment", "ManAm" ], "short": "An omnibus amendment offered by the bill's floor manager immediately before passage, folding in negotiated changes as a single package.", "text": "An omnibus amendment offered by the bill's floor manager immediately before passage, folding in negotiated changes as a single package.", "note": "Substantial policy routinely enters here in one vote, with no section-by-section record. Treat a manager's amendment as a version boundary, not an amendment.", "see_also": [ "en-bloc", "self-executing-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#managers-amendment" }, { "id": "markup", "term": "Markup", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "mark up", "committee markup", "chairman's mark" ], "short": "The committee session where a bill is amended and voted on.", "text": "The committee session where a bill is amended and voted on. Produces a recorded committee vote and, usually, a chairman's mark and an amendment roster.", "note": "Committee votes are provision-adjacent in a way final passage never is, and they name members. For attribution this is tier two and it is badly underused.", "see_also": [ "ordered-reported", "managers-amendment", "sequential-referral" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#markup" }, { "id": "motion-to-proceed", "term": "Motion to proceed", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "MTP", "proceed to the bill" ], "short": "The Senate motion to begin considering a bill.", "text": "The Senate motion to begin considering a bill. Debatable, and therefore filibusterable — so a bill can require cloture twice, once to be taken up and once to be voted on.", "note": "A cloture vote on the motion to proceed is frequently reported as a vote on the bill. It is a vote on whether to have the debate.", "see_also": [ "cloture", "filibuster" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#motion-to-proceed" }, { "id": "motion-to-recommit", "term": "Motion to recommit", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "MTR" ], "short": "The minority's guaranteed final chance to amend a House bill before passage.", "text": "The minority's guaranteed final chance to amend a House bill before passage. Almost always fails, and the vote is used as a message vote.", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#motion-to-recommit" }, { "id": "ordered-reported", "term": "Ordered reported", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "reported out", "reported favorably" ], "short": "The committee has voted to send the bill to the floor.", "text": "The committee has voted to send the bill to the floor. Reporting is not passage and creates no obligation to schedule.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "markup" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#ordered-reported" }, { "id": "parliamentarian", "term": "Parliamentarian", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Senate Parliamentarian", "the chair's advice" ], "short": "The nonpartisan adviser who tells the presiding officer how the chamber's rules apply.", "text": "The nonpartisan adviser who tells the presiding officer how the chamber's rules apply. Rulings are advisory in form and dispositive in practice. Byrd bath determinations are made here, in private, and are usually reported rather than published.", "note": "The determination is often the only record that a provision was dropped for procedural reasons, and it is not a machine-readable source. This is exactly the sub-regulatory dark matter the archive exists to capture.", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#parliamentarian" }, { "id": "pocket-veto", "term": "Pocket veto", "category": "proc", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. I, § 7", "aliases": [ "pocketed" ], "short": "The President neither signs nor returns a bill and Congress's adjournment prevents return, so the bill dies.", "text": "The President neither signs nor returns a bill and Congress's adjournment prevents return, so the bill dies. Distinct from the ten-day rule: if Congress remains in session, a bill unsigned after ten days becomes law without a signature.", "note": "\"became law without the President's signature\" is a fact about the enactment mechanism, not a political characterization, and it belongs on the card. Pub. L. 119-101 is exactly this case.", "see_also": [ "veto-override", "public-law" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#pocket-veto" }, { "id": "point-of-order", "term": "Point of order", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "raise a point of order", "sustained", "waived" ], "short": "An objection that a pending matter violates a rule or statute.", "text": "An objection that a pending matter violates a rule or statute. Sustained, it kills the provision; waived (60 votes in the Senate for most budget points of order), the provision survives. Most budget enforcement is a point of order rather than a prohibition.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "byrd-rule", "paygo" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#point-of-order" }, { "id": "present-vote", "term": "Present", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "voting present", "answer present" ], "short": "A recorded abstention.", "text": "A recorded abstention. Counts toward a quorum, counts against no threshold, and is a deliberate position rather than an absence.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "roll-call-vote" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#present-vote" }, { "id": "quorum", "term": "Quorum", "category": "proc", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. I, § 5", "aliases": [ "quorum call", "live quorum" ], "short": "The majority required to do business.", "text": "The majority required to do business. Quorum calls are used far more often to stall than to establish attendance. ---", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#quorum" }, { "id": "reconciliation", "term": "Reconciliation", "category": "proc", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 641", "aliases": [ "budget reconciliation", "reconciliation bill" ], "short": "An expedited procedure that lets a bill implementing a budget resolution's instructions pass the Senate on a simple majority with debate capped at 20 hours, immune to filibuster.", "text": "An expedited procedure that lets a bill implementing a budget resolution's instructions pass the Senate on a simple majority with debate capped at 20 hours, immune to filibuster. The price is the Byrd rule, which strips anything not primarily budgetary.", "note": "Reconciliation bills are the highest-yield corpus in the system. They are large, they pass on party lines, and the Byrd rule guarantees a documented set of provisions that were dropped for procedural rather than political reasons — which is a clean natural experiment for [zombie provisions](#zombie-provision).", "see_also": [ "byrd-rule", "budget-resolution", "reconciliation-instructions" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#reconciliation" }, { "id": "rider", "term": "Rider", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "legislative rider", "policy rider" ], "short": "A provision attached to a bill it has no substantive relationship to, usually a must-pass vehicle.", "text": "A provision attached to a bill it has no substantive relationship to, usually a must-pass vehicle. Distinguished from an earmark: a rider changes policy, an earmark directs money.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "vehicle", "germaneness", "christmas-tree-bill" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#rider" }, { "id": "roll-call-vote", "term": "Roll call vote", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "recorded vote", "yeas and nays", "the roll" ], "short": "A vote where each member's position is recorded individually.", "text": "A vote where each member's position is recorded individually. In the House also recorded vote or electronic vote; a voice vote or division vote records only the outcome.", "note": "Four member states, not three — `yea`, `nay`, `present`, and `not voting`. Not-voting is not a no, and collapsing them is a false statement about a named person.", "see_also": [ "present-vote", "quorum", "unanimous-consent" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#roll-call-vote" }, { "id": "rule-xiv", "term": "Rule XIV", "category": "proc", "cite": "Senate Rule XIV", "aliases": [ "Rule 14", "placed on the calendar" ], "short": "The Senate procedure for bypassing committee referral and placing a bill directly on the calendar.", "text": "The Senate procedure for bypassing committee referral and placing a bill directly on the calendar. Signals leadership intent to move something without a markup.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "markup", "discharge-petition" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#rule-xiv" }, { "id": "scope-of-conference", "term": "Scope of conference", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "out of scope", "airdrop" ], "short": "The rule that a conference report may only address matters in disagreement between the two chambers.", "text": "The rule that a conference report may only address matters in disagreement between the two chambers. Material inserted in conference that appeared in neither version is an airdrop, and is subject to a point of order.", "note": "Airdropped text has no committee record, no amendment vote, and no sponsor — the hardest provenance case in the corpus, and disproportionately consequential.", "see_also": [ "conference-committee", "point-of-order" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#scope-of-conference" }, { "id": "self-executing-rule", "term": "Self-executing rule", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "deem and pass", "hereby adopted" ], "short": "A special rule that adopts an amendment or an entire bill text automatically upon adoption of the rule, with no separate vote.", "text": "A special rule that adopts an amendment or an entire bill text automatically upon adoption of the rule, with no separate vote.", "note": "Text can enter a bill with no vote of its own and no amendment record. If the pipeline reconstructs provenance from amendment votes alone, self-executed text appears from nowhere. Reconcile against the version diff, not the vote record.", "see_also": [ "special-rule", "amendment-between-houses" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#self-executing-rule" }, { "id": "sequential-referral", "term": "Sequential referral", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "multiple referral", "additional referral" ], "short": "A bill referred to more than one committee, in sequence or in parallel, each with jurisdiction over part of it.", "text": "A bill referred to more than one committee, in sequence or in parallel, each with jurisdiction over part of it.", "note": "Jurisdiction predicts which agency receives the delegation. A bill referred to both Financial Services and Agriculture is going to delegate to both HUD and USDA, and the referral record says so before the text does.", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#sequential-referral" }, { "id": "special-rule", "term": "Special rule", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "the rule", "closed rule", "open rule", "structured rule", "rule from Rules" ], "short": "A resolution from the House Rules Committee setting the terms of floor debate for a specific bill — time, which amendments are in order, what points of order are waived.", "text": "A resolution from the House Rules Committee setting the terms of floor debate for a specific bill — time, which amendments are in order, what points of order are waived. Closed allows no amendments; structured allows an enumerated list; open allows any germane amendment, and is now nearly extinct.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "self-executing-rule", "germaneness", "motion-to-recommit" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#special-rule" }, { "id": "suspension-of-the-rules", "term": "Suspension of the rules", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "suspension", "passed under suspension", "two-thirds" ], "short": "House procedure for non-controversial bills: 40 minutes of debate, no amendments, two-thirds required to pass.", "text": "House procedure for non-controversial bills: 40 minutes of debate, no amendments, two-thirds required to pass. Most bills that pass the House pass this way.", "note": "A two-thirds threshold makes the tally a poor proxy for support. A bill passing 390-9 under suspension and a bill passing 218-215 under a rule are not comparable measures of anything.", "see_also": [ "special-rule", "roll-call-vote" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#suspension-of-the-rules" }, { "id": "unanimous-consent", "term": "Unanimous consent", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "UC", "UC agreement", "by unanimous consent" ], "short": "The mechanism by which most Senate business actually happens.", "text": "The mechanism by which most Senate business actually happens. A single objection defeats it. Bills passed by UC produce no recorded vote at all.", "note": "The absence of a roll call is not the absence of a decision. A card that shows an empty vote panel because the bill passed by UC must say so explicitly, or it reads as missing data — which is the *Silent* discipline applied to procedure.", "see_also": [ "hold", "hotline", "roll-call-vote" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#unanimous-consent" }, { "id": "vehicle", "term": "Vehicle", "category": "proc", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "legislative vehicle", "must-pass", "shell bill" ], "short": "A bill that will pass, used to carry provisions that could not pass alone.", "text": "A bill that will pass, used to carry provisions that could not pass alone. The NDAA, the annual approps bills, and debt limit bills are the standing vehicles.", "note": "Vehicle selection is the strongest observable predictor of whether a stripped provision resurfaces, and vehicles are on a known calendar. This makes the zombie tracker a scheduling problem as much as a text-matching one.", "see_also": [ "zombie-provision", "rider", "christmas-tree-bill" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#vehicle" }, { "id": "veto-override", "term": "Veto override", "category": "proc", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. I, § 7", "aliases": [ "override", "two-thirds of both houses" ], "short": "Two-thirds of both chambers, on a recorded vote, enacting a bill over the President's objection.", "text": "Two-thirds of both chambers, on a recorded vote, enacting a bill over the President's objection.", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#veto-override" }, { "id": "bill-version-codes", "term": "Bill version codes", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "IH", "IS", "RH", "RS", "EH", "ES", "PCS", "ENR", "RFS", "RDS" ], "short": "GPO's two-letter codes for the stage of a bill's text.", "text": "GPO's two-letter codes for the stage of a bill's text. The ones that matter: ih/is introduced · rh/rs reported · eh/es engrossed (passed one chamber) · pcs placed on calendar · enr enrolled (passed both, going to the President).", "note": "Version is part of the identity of a provision, not metadata about it. `provision_id` carries the version; `lineage_id` is what survives across versions.", "see_also": [ "engrossment", "enrollment", "lineage-id", "uslm" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#bill-version-codes" }, { "id": "billstatus", "term": "BILLSTATUS", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "bill status XML" ], "short": "GovInfo's structured record of a bill's actions, sponsors, committees, and related bills.", "text": "GovInfo's structured record of a bill's actions, sponsors, committees, and related bills. Published, clean, and requires no inference.", "note": "Bill-level status is free. Clause-level status is not. Keeping that distinction sharp is what keeps the evergreen card check a cache lookup instead of a pipeline run.", "see_also": [ "uslm", "govinfo" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#billstatus" }, { "id": "bioguide-id", "term": "Bioguide ID", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "bioguide", "bioguideId" ], "short": "The Biographical Directory's stable identifier for a member of Congress, of the form S001227.", "text": "The Biographical Directory's stable identifier for a member of Congress, of the form S001227. The join key between vote records, member metadata, and portraits.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "roll-call-number", "icpsr" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#bioguide-id" }, { "id": "concurrent-resolution", "term": "Concurrent resolution", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "H.Con.Res.", "S.Con.Res." ], "short": "Passed by both chambers, not presented to the President, and does not have the force of law.", "text": "Passed by both chambers, not presented to the President, and does not have the force of law. The budget resolution is one.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "budget-resolution", "simple-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#concurrent-resolution" }, { "id": "govinfo", "term": "GovInfo", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "GPO GovInfo", "bulk data" ], "short": "GPO's publishing system and the canonical source for bills, public laws, the Federal Register, and the CFR, in both bulk XML and API form.", "text": "GPO's publishing system and the canonical source for bills, public laws, the Federal Register, and the CFR, in both bulk XML and API form.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "uslm", "federal-register", "cfr" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#govinfo" }, { "id": "icpsr", "term": "ICPSR number", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "ICPSR ID" ], "short": "The numeric member identifier used by political science datasets, including every historical roll call analysis.", "text": "The numeric member identifier used by political science datasets, including every historical roll call analysis. The bridge from vote records to the academic literature.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "bioguide-id" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#icpsr" }, { "id": "identifier-collision", "term": "Identifier collision", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "HR1 problem" ], "short": "Two unrelated things sharing an identifier.", "text": "Two unrelated things sharing an identifier. Every Congress has an H.R. 1 and an S. 1; committee prints, RINs, and docket IDs all get reused across agencies and years.", "note": "The canonical instance is the two H.R. 1s — the For the People Act of 2021 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. Bare `HR1` in a filename or a prompt is ambiguous and has already caused one documented error in prior work. Identifiers carry the Congress, always.", "see_also": [ "provision-id", "rin" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#identifier-collision" }, { "id": "joint-resolution", "term": "Joint resolution", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "H.J.Res.", "S.J.Res." ], "short": "Legally identical to a bill — it is presented to the President and becomes law.", "text": "Legally identical to a bill — it is presented to the President and becomes law. Used by convention for continuing resolutions, constitutional amendments, and Congressional Review Act disapprovals.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "concurrent-resolution", "congressional-review-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#joint-resolution" }, { "id": "lineage-id", "term": "Lineage ID", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "lineageId" ], "short": "The version-independent identifier that follows a provision across ih → rh → eh → es → enr, and across bills entirely when a clause is struck from one and resurfaces in another.", "text": "The version-independent identifier that follows a provision across ih → rh → eh → es → enr, and across bills entirely when a clause is struck from one and resurfaces in another.", "note": "This is what makes a card evergreen rather than merely dated, and what makes the zombie tracker expressible as a query. Adding it later means re-minting every identifier in the system.", "see_also": [ "provision-id", "zombie-provision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#lineage-id" }, { "id": "positive-law-codification", "term": "Positive law codification", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "positive law title", "non-positive title" ], "short": "Whether a U.S.C.", "text": "Whether a U.S.C. title is the law or merely evidence of it. Roughly half the titles have been enacted into positive law; for the rest, the Statutes at Large controls if they conflict.", "note": "For a non-positive title, a citation to the Code is a citation to a restatement. When precision matters, cite the act.", "see_also": [ "us-code", "statutes-at-large" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#positive-law-codification" }, { "id": "provision-id", "term": "Provision ID", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "provisionId" ], "short": "Downstream's stable, version-specific identifier for a leaf provision, of the form us/119-hr-6644-enr/titII/sec204/a/2.", "text": "Downstream's stable, version-specific identifier for a leaf provision, of the form us/119-hr-6644-enr/titII/sec204/a/2. Names the version because the text of that provision is version-specific.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "lineage-id", "bill-version-codes", "provision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#provision-id" }, { "id": "public-law", "term": "Public law", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Pub. L.", "PL", "public law number" ], "short": "A bill that has been enacted, numbered Pub.", "text": "A bill that has been enacted, numbered Pub. L. - in order of enactment. Private laws — affecting named individuals — are numbered separately.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "slip-law", "statutes-at-large", "us-code" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#public-law" }, { "id": "roll-call-number", "term": "Roll call number", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "roll number", "vote number" ], "short": "A vote's identifier within a chamber and session.", "text": "A vote's identifier within a chamber and session. Numbering restarts each session and the two chambers number independently, so vote 224 is meaningless without chamber, congress, and session.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "roll-call-vote", "bioguide-id" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#roll-call-number" }, { "id": "simple-resolution", "term": "Simple resolution", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "H.Res.", "S.Res." ], "short": "One chamber only, governing its own affairs.", "text": "One chamber only, governing its own affairs. House special rules are simple resolutions. ---", "note": "", "see_also": [ "special-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#simple-resolution" }, { "id": "slip-law", "term": "Slip law", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "slip" ], "short": "The first official publication of an enacted law, as a standalone pamphlet, before it is compiled into the Statutes at Large.", "text": "The first official publication of an enacted law, as a standalone pamphlet, before it is compiled into the Statutes at Large.", "note": "The slip law is the first citable authority and it appears well before the USLM XML of the public law. Whether to build identifiers on `enr` or wait for `publ` is a real decision with a real lag attached.", "see_also": [ "public-law", "statutes-at-large" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#slip-law" }, { "id": "statutes-at-large", "term": "Statutes at Large", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Stat.", "session laws" ], "short": "The chronological compilation of every law enacted in a session.", "text": "The chronological compilation of every law enacted in a session. Legal evidence of the law as passed, in the form it was passed.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "us-code", "positive-law-codification" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#statutes-at-large" }, { "id": "us-code", "term": "United States Code", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "U.S.C.", "the Code", "codified" ], "short": "The subject-matter arrangement of general and permanent federal law into 54 titles.", "text": "The subject-matter arrangement of general and permanent federal law into 54 titles. A statute's text and its codified location are different things — an act amends the Code by instruction, and the Code is the result.", "note": "The join from an act's section to the U.S.C. section it amends is the most load-bearing join in Layer 1. Everything about blast radius, cross-references, and CFR reach runs through it, and it is hand-verified at 90% before anything ships on it.", "see_also": [ "positive-law-codification", "conforming-amendment", "cross-reference" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#us-code" }, { "id": "uslm", "term": "USLM", "category": "ident", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "United States Legislative Markup", "USLM XML" ], "short": "The XML schema GPO publishes bills and the Code in.", "text": "The XML schema GPO publishes bills and the Code in. Carries the section tree, identifiers, and amendment instructions as structure rather than as formatting.", "note": "This is the substrate. Parsing the HTML render instead of the USLM throws away the hierarchy and the amendment instructions, and there is no way to recover them downstream.", "see_also": [ "bill-version-codes", "billstatus", "govinfo" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#uslm" }, { "id": "302-b", "term": "302(b) allocation", "category": "approp", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 633", "aliases": [ "302(a)", "suballocation" ], "short": "The division of total discretionary spending among the twelve appropriations subcommittees.", "text": "The division of total discretionary spending among the twelve appropriations subcommittees. Enforced by a point of order, and the real constraint on any individual bill.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "budget-resolution", "point-of-order" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#302-b" }, { "id": "anomaly", "term": "Anomaly", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "CR anomaly" ], "short": "An exception written into a continuing resolution allowing a specific program to depart from prior-year levels or rules.", "text": "An exception written into a continuing resolution allowing a specific program to depart from prior-year levels or rules.", "note": "Anomalies are a ranked list of what the executive branch says it cannot wait for. That is a revealed-priority signal published on a schedule, and almost nobody reads it as one.", "see_also": [ "continuing-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#anomaly" }, { "id": "antideficiency-act", "term": "Antideficiency Act", "category": "approp", "cite": "31 U.S.C. § 1341", "aliases": [ "ADA violation" ], "short": "Prohibits obligating in excess of, or in advance of, an appropriation.", "text": "Prohibits obligating in excess of, or in advance of, an appropriation. Violations are reported to Congress and the President and are individually enumerated.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "apportionment", "appropriation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#antideficiency-act" }, { "id": "apportionment", "term": "Apportionment", "category": "approp", "cite": "31 U.S.C. § 1512", "aliases": [ "apportionment schedule", "OMB apportionment" ], "short": "OMB's distribution of appropriated funds to an agency by time period or activity.", "text": "OMB's distribution of appropriated funds to an agency by time period or activity. An agency cannot obligate money OMB has not apportioned.", "note": "Apportionment is a chokepoint between appropriation and obligation that is invisible in the statute and controlled by the executive. Since apportionment files became public, it is observable — and it is where a funded program can be quietly slowed.", "see_also": [ "impoundment", "obligation", "antideficiency-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#apportionment" }, { "id": "appropriation", "term": "Appropriation", "category": "approp", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. I, § 9, cl. 7", "aliases": [ "appropriations act", "approps" ], "short": "The act of law that actually makes money available for obligation.", "text": "The act of law that actually makes money available for obligation. No money leaves the Treasury without one.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "authorization", "budget-authority", "obligation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#appropriation" }, { "id": "authorization", "term": "Authorization", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "authorizing legislation", "authorization of appropriations" ], "short": "A law creating or continuing a program and permitting money to be appropriated for it.", "text": "A law creating or continuing a program and permitting money to be appropriated for it. Authorization alone spends nothing.", "note": "\"the bill provides $X billion\" is almost always false when the bill is an authorization. It permits $X billion. This is the most common single error in coverage of legislation and a card must never reproduce it.", "see_also": [ "appropriation", "authorization-appropriation-gap", "such-sums" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#authorization" }, { "id": "authorization-appropriation-gap", "term": "Authorization-appropriation gap", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "authorized but not appropriated", "unfunded authorization" ], "short": "The routine condition in which a program is authorized at one level and funded at another, or at nothing.", "text": "The routine condition in which a program is authorized at one level and funded at another, or at nothing. Large fractions of authorized programs are never funded.", "note": "This is the mechanism behind `contingent_unfunded` — the agency did not fail, Congress did not fund it. Rendering that as a missed deadline is an accusation against the wrong party.", "see_also": [ "contingent-unfunded", "subject-to-appropriations" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#authorization-appropriation-gap" }, { "id": "budget-authority", "term": "Budget authority", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "BA" ], "short": "The legal authority to incur obligations.", "text": "The legal authority to incur obligations. The first of the three numbers, and the one usually quoted as though it were spending.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "obligation", "outlay" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#budget-authority" }, { "id": "budget-resolution", "term": "Budget resolution", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "concurrent resolution on the budget" ], "short": "A concurrent resolution setting aggregate spending and revenue levels and, when desired, issuing reconciliation instructions.", "text": "A concurrent resolution setting aggregate spending and revenue levels and, when desired, issuing reconciliation instructions. Not law, not signed, and enforced through points of order.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "reconciliation-instructions", "302-b", "concurrent-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#budget-resolution" }, { "id": "cbo-baseline", "term": "CBO baseline", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "baseline", "current-law baseline" ], "short": "CBO's projection of spending and revenue under current law, against which every cost estimate is measured.", "text": "CBO's projection of spending and revenue under current law, against which every cost estimate is measured. Changes in the baseline change every score without any policy changing.", "note": "The Ledger grades CBO by criteria written in advance. Doing that fairly requires holding the baseline vintage fixed, which is the same point-in-time discipline that governs everything else here.", "see_also": [ "scorekeeping", "jct-estimate", "point-in-time" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cbo-baseline" }, { "id": "earmark", "term": "Congressionally directed spending", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "earmark", "member-directed spending", "community project funding" ], "short": "An appropriation directed to a specific project, recipient, or location at a member's request.", "text": "An appropriation directed to a specific project, recipient, or location at a member's request. Since the practice returned, requests and awards are disclosed by member.", "note": "The disclosure tables are a per-member, per-state, per-dollar record that joins cleanly to the vote record. It is the most state-resolved accountability data in the entire appropriations corpus.", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#earmark" }, { "id": "contingent-unfunded", "term": "Contingent unfunded", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [], "short": "Downstream's status for an obligation that is real but conditioned on funding that never arrived.", "text": "Downstream's status for an obligation that is real but conditioned on funding that never arrived. Renders as Pending with a 45-degree hatch, not as a sixth status color. ---", "note": "", "see_also": [ "subject-to-appropriations", "authorization-appropriation-gap" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#contingent-unfunded" }, { "id": "continuing-resolution", "term": "Continuing resolution", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "CR", "stopgap", "full-year CR" ], "short": "An appropriation continuing funding at prior-year levels when regular bills have not passed.", "text": "An appropriation continuing funding at prior-year levels when regular bills have not passed. Typically bars new starts and production rate changes unless an anomaly says otherwise.", "note": "A CR freezes new programs by default. A statutory deadline that lands during a CR has a materially different compliance base rate, and that is a covariate the hazard model needs rather than noise it should absorb.", "see_also": [ "anomaly", "omnibus", "discretionary" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#continuing-resolution" }, { "id": "deferral", "term": "Deferral", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "deferral of budget authority" ], "short": "A proposal to delay obligation of funds within the fiscal year.", "text": "A proposal to delay obligation of funds within the fiscal year. Permitted only for specified reasons, and subject to reporting.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "impoundment", "rescission" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#deferral" }, { "id": "discretionary", "term": "Discretionary spending", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "discretionary funding" ], "short": "Spending controlled through annual appropriations acts.", "text": "Spending controlled through annual appropriations acts. About a quarter of federal outlays.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "mandatory", "continuing-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#discretionary" }, { "id": "emergency-designation", "term": "Emergency designation", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "designated as an emergency requirement" ], "short": "A statutory label exempting spending from budget caps and PAYGO.", "text": "A statutory label exempting spending from budget caps and PAYGO. Costs nothing to apply and removes the enforcement mechanism entirely.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "paygo", "supplemental" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#emergency-designation" }, { "id": "impoundment", "term": "Impoundment", "category": "approp", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 681 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Impoundment Control Act", "ICA" ], "short": "The executive declining to spend appropriated money.", "text": "The executive declining to spend appropriated money. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 permits it only through a rescission proposed to Congress or a deferral, both with reporting requirements and time limits.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "rescission", "deferral", "pocket-rescission" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#impoundment" }, { "id": "jct-estimate", "term": "JCT estimate", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Joint Committee on Taxation score", "revenue estimate" ], "short": "The official revenue estimate for tax legislation.", "text": "The official revenue estimate for tax legislation. Distinct from CBO, which scores spending.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cbo-baseline", "scorekeeping" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#jct-estimate" }, { "id": "mandatory", "term": "Mandatory spending", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "direct spending", "entitlement spending" ], "short": "Spending controlled by the authorizing statute itself rather than by annual appropriations.", "text": "Spending controlled by the authorizing statute itself rather than by annual appropriations. Changing it requires changing the underlying law, which is why it is reconciliation's usual target.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "discretionary", "reconciliation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#mandatory" }, { "id": "no-year-money", "term": "No-year money", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "no-year funds", "available until expended" ], "short": "Budget authority with no expiration.", "text": "Budget authority with no expiration. Contrast with single-year and multi-year funds, which lapse if not obligated in time.", "note": "The availability period sets the deadline for the obligation-rate metric. Applying a single-year clock to no-year money produces a fictitious shortfall.", "see_also": [ "obligation", "antideficiency-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#no-year-money" }, { "id": "obligation", "term": "Obligation", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "obligated", "obligation rate" ], "short": "A binding commitment of the government to pay — a signed contract, a grant award.", "text": "A binding commitment of the government to pay — a signed contract, a grant award. The second number, and the one that shows whether a program is actually operating.", "note": "`obligated ÷ authorized at 24 months` is the workhorse implementation metric in this system. It is observable, it is comparable across programs, and it resolves in two years rather than seven.", "see_also": [ "budget-authority", "outlay", "no-year-money" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#obligation" }, { "id": "omnibus", "term": "Omnibus", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "minibus", "cromnibus" ], "short": "Multiple appropriations bills enacted as one.", "text": "Multiple appropriations bills enacted as one. A minibus combines a few; a cromnibus combines full-year appropriations for some agencies with a CR for others.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "continuing-resolution", "christmas-tree-bill" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#omnibus" }, { "id": "outlay", "term": "Outlay", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "outlays", "disbursement" ], "short": "Cash actually leaving the Treasury.", "text": "Cash actually leaving the Treasury. The third number, and the one that lags the others by years for capital programs.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "budget-authority", "obligation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#outlay" }, { "id": "paygo", "term": "PAYGO", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "statutory PAYGO", "CUTGO", "pay-as-you-go" ], "short": "Rules requiring that new mandatory spending or tax cuts be offset.", "text": "Rules requiring that new mandatory spending or tax cuts be offset. Statutory PAYGO triggers automatic sequestration; the chamber rules are enforced by points of order and are waived routinely.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "emergency-designation", "point-of-order" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#paygo" }, { "id": "pocket-rescission", "term": "Pocket rescission", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [], "short": "Sending a rescission proposal close enough to the end of the fiscal year that the 45-day clock cannot expire before the funds lapse, achieving cancellation without a vote.", "text": "Sending a rescission proposal close enough to the end of the fiscal year that the 45-day clock cannot expire before the funds lapse, achieving cancellation without a vote. Contested as inconsistent with the Impoundment Control Act.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "rescission", "impoundment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#pocket-rescission" }, { "id": "reconciliation-instructions", "term": "Reconciliation instructions", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "instructions", "reconciliation directive" ], "short": "Directions in a budget resolution telling named committees to report changes producing a specified budgetary result.", "text": "Directions in a budget resolution telling named committees to report changes producing a specified budgetary result. The committee chooses the policy; the resolution sets the number.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "reconciliation", "budget-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#reconciliation-instructions" }, { "id": "report-language", "term": "Report language", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "committee report", "explanatory statement" ], "short": "Direction in a committee report or joint explanatory statement rather than in the bill text.", "text": "Direction in a committee report or joint explanatory statement rather than in the bill text. Not legally binding. Agencies generally comply, because the same committee writes next year's bill.", "note": "An enormous share of what Congress actually directs lives here and in [sub-regulatory guidance](#sub-regulatory-guidance) — outside statute, outside the Federal Register, and outside every dataset that models legislative effect from bill text alone.", "see_also": [ "sub-regulatory-guidance", "earmark" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#report-language" }, { "id": "reprogramming", "term": "Reprogramming", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "reprogramming action" ], "short": "Moving funds between purposes within an appropriation account.", "text": "Moving funds between purposes within an appropriation account. Usually requires notifying the appropriations committees, under thresholds set in report language rather than statute.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "transfer-authority", "report-language" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#reprogramming" }, { "id": "rescission", "term": "Rescission", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "rescission proposal", "rescissions package" ], "short": "A proposal to cancel budget authority.", "text": "A proposal to cancel budget authority. Funds may be withheld for 45 days of continuous session while Congress considers it; if Congress does not act, the money must be released.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "impoundment", "deferral" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#rescission" }, { "id": "scorekeeping", "term": "Scorekeeping", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "score", "cost estimate", "scoring" ], "short": "The conventions determining what counts as a cost against the baseline.", "text": "The conventions determining what counts as a cost against the baseline. Timing shifts, sunsets, and effective dates are the standard tools for producing a target number without a corresponding policy change.", "note": "A sunset written to make a score work is a **planned** zombie. The expiration date is a scheduled resurfacing event, published years in advance.", "see_also": [ "sunset", "cbo-baseline", "zombie-provision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#scorekeeping" }, { "id": "subject-to-appropriations", "term": "Subject to the availability of appropriations", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "subject to appropriations", "if funds are made available" ], "short": "Language conditioning a statutory duty on money being appropriated.", "text": "Language conditioning a statutory duty on money being appropriated. Converts a mandate into a contingent one.", "note": "This phrase is the difference between an agency missing a deadline and an agency never having been obliged to meet it. Extract it as a field; do not let it live in prose.", "see_also": [ "contingent-unfunded", "authorization-appropriation-gap", "shall-vs-may" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#subject-to-appropriations" }, { "id": "supplemental", "term": "Supplemental appropriation", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "supplemental", "emergency supplemental" ], "short": "An appropriation enacted outside the regular cycle, usually for disasters or conflicts, and usually designated as emergency.", "text": "An appropriation enacted outside the regular cycle, usually for disasters or conflicts, and usually designated as emergency.", "note": "Disaster supplementals resolve in 12 to 24 months rather than five to seven years, and they are geographically concrete. That makes them the fastest-resolving ground truth available, which is why they are the named pilot for the feedback layer.", "see_also": [ "emergency-designation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#supplemental" }, { "id": "transfer-authority", "term": "Transfer authority", "category": "approp", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "transfer" ], "short": "Statutory permission to move funds between appropriation accounts.", "text": "Statutory permission to move funds between appropriation accounts. Must be granted expressly.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "reprogramming" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#transfer-authority" }, { "id": "umra", "term": "Unfunded mandate", "category": "approp", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 1501 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Unfunded Mandates Reform Act", "UMRA" ], "short": "Requires cost estimates for federal requirements imposed on state, local, and tribal governments or the private sector above statutory thresholds, and creates a point of order.", "text": "Requires cost estimates for federal requirements imposed on state, local, and tribal governments or the private sector above statutory thresholds, and creates a point of order.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "preemption", "point-of-order" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#umra" }, { "id": "apa", "term": "Administrative Procedure Act", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 551 et seq.", "aliases": [ "APA" ], "short": "The statute governing how agencies make rules and how courts review them.", "text": "The statute governing how agencies make rules and how courts review them. Sets notice and comment, the arbitrary and capricious standard, and the terms of judicial review.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "notice-and-comment", "arbitrary-and-capricious", "vacatur" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#apa" }, { "id": "anprm", "term": "ANPRM", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "advance notice of proposed rulemaking" ], "short": "An optional pre-proposal notice soliciting input before a rule is drafted.", "text": "An optional pre-proposal notice soliciting input before a rule is drafted. Signals early-stage activity and does not satisfy a rulemaking mandate.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "nprm" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#anprm" }, { "id": "categorical-exclusion", "term": "Categorical exclusion", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "CatEx", "CE" ], "short": "A class of actions an agency has determined does not require an EA or an EIS.", "text": "A class of actions an agency has determined does not require an EA or an EIS. Expanding categorical exclusions is the standard statutory lever for accelerating federally supported construction.", "note": "A categorical exclusion is a deregulatory action that usually requires its own rulemaking. The statute creates the exclusion; the rule makes it usable. Two events, two deadlines.", "see_also": [ "nepa", "eis" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#categorical-exclusion" }, { "id": "cfr", "term": "Code of Federal Regulations", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "C.F.R.", "the CFR" ], "short": "The subject-matter codification of final rules, in 50 titles.", "text": "The subject-matter codification of final rules, in 50 titles. Stands to the Federal Register as the U.S. Code stands to the Statutes at Large.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "ecfr", "federal-register", "us-code" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cfr" }, { "id": "compliance-date", "term": "Compliance date", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "date of compliance" ], "short": "When regulated parties must actually conform.", "text": "When regulated parties must actually conform. Frequently later than the effective date, and frequently the number that matters to anyone affected.", "note": "Quoting the effective date as the date a rule bites is wrong whenever the two differ, and they usually differ. Extract both.", "see_also": [ "effective-date", "applicability-date" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#compliance-date" }, { "id": "congressional-review-act", "term": "Congressional Review Act", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 801 et seq.", "aliases": [ "CRA", "CRA resolution" ], "short": "Requires agencies to submit final rules to Congress, and allows disapproval by joint resolution on an expedited, filibuster-proof track within a lookback window.", "text": "Requires agencies to submit final rules to Congress, and allows disapproval by joint resolution on an expedited, filibuster-proof track within a lookback window. A disapproved rule is void, and the agency may not issue one substantially the same without new authority.", "note": "A CRA disapproval is a clean, dated, machine-checkable resolution event — the delegation was fulfilled and then unfulfilled by statute. And the substantially-the-same bar makes it a durable state change, not a setback.", "see_also": [ "substantially-the-same", "lookback-window", "joint-resolution" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#congressional-review-act" }, { "id": "dear-colleague-letter", "term": "Dear Colleague letter", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "DCL" ], "short": "A guidance letter to a class of regulated parties — school districts, state agencies, lenders.", "text": "A guidance letter to a class of regulated parties — school districts, state agencies, lenders. Not a rule, and treated as binding by nearly everyone who receives one.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "sub-regulatory-guidance" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#dear-colleague-letter" }, { "id": "direct-final-rule", "term": "Direct final rule", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "DFR" ], "short": "A rule published as final, effective on a stated date, unless adverse comment is received — in which case it is withdrawn.", "text": "A rule published as final, effective on a stated date, unless adverse comment is received — in which case it is withdrawn. Used for genuinely uncontroversial changes.", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#direct-final-rule" }, { "id": "docket-id", "term": "Docket ID", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "docket number", "regulations.gov docket" ], "short": "The Regulations.gov container holding a rulemaking's documents and its public comments.", "text": "The Regulations.gov container holding a rulemaking's documents and its public comments. The join key from a rule to what the public said about it.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "regulations-gov", "mass-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#docket-id" }, { "id": "ecfr", "term": "eCFR", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "electronic CFR" ], "short": "The continuously updated CFR with a versioning API, making point-in-time regulatory text retrievable by date.", "text": "The continuously updated CFR with a versioning API, making point-in-time regulatory text retrievable by date.", "note": "Without vintaged CFR text there is no honest way to say what a regulation required on a past date, and every backtest leaks future information.", "see_also": [ "cfr", "point-in-time" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#ecfr" }, { "id": "effective-date", "term": "Effective date", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 553(d)", "aliases": [ "effective" ], "short": "When a rule takes legal effect.", "text": "When a rule takes legal effect. Generally at least 30 days after publication for substantive rules.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "compliance-date", "congressional-review-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#effective-date" }, { "id": "eis", "term": "EIS / EA / FONSI", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "environmental impact statement", "environmental assessment", "finding of no significant impact" ], "short": "NEPA's three outcomes.", "text": "NEPA's three outcomes. An EA is the screening analysis; it produces either a FONSI or a full EIS. Each is published, dated, and citable. ---", "note": "", "see_also": [ "nepa", "categorical-exclusion" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#eis" }, { "id": "eo-12866", "term": "EO 12866", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Executive Order 12866" ], "short": "The 1993 order establishing centralized regulatory review and the significance criteria that determine which rules go to OIRA.", "text": "The 1993 order establishing centralized regulatory review and the significance criteria that determine which rules go to OIRA.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "oira-review", "significant-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#eo-12866" }, { "id": "federal-advisory-committee", "term": "Federal advisory committee", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq.", "aliases": [ "FACA", "advisory committee", "Federal Advisory Committee Act" ], "short": "A chartered outside body that advises an agency.", "text": "A chartered outside body that advises an agency. The statute requires a charter, a designated federal officer, membership balanced across points of view, meetings open to the public, and notice in the federal-register.", "note": "The meeting date is not an obligation and starts no clock. **The rest of the document can be.** A charter reestablishment that solicits nominations, or a rulemaking that touches FACA, carries a real `comments_close_on`, and discarding it because the text said \"advisory committee\" drops a live deadline. Read the date field, never the committee name. Whether any of the advice reached a final rule is recorded nowhere.", "see_also": [ "federal-register", "notice-and-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#federal-advisory-committee" }, { "id": "federal-register", "term": "Federal Register", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "FR", "the Register" ], "short": "The daily journal of the executive branch: proposed rules, final rules, notices, presidential documents.", "text": "The daily journal of the executive branch: proposed rules, final rules, notices, presidential documents. Publication here is the event that starts most legal clocks.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cfr", "nprm", "effective-date" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#federal-register" }, { "id": "final-rule", "term": "Final rule", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "final regulation" ], "short": "The binding rule, published in the Federal Register with a preamble responding to significant comments, and codified in the CFR.", "text": "The binding rule, published in the Federal Register with a preamble responding to significant comments, and codified in the CFR.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "effective-date", "cfr", "nprm" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#final-rule" }, { "id": "good-cause-exception", "term": "Good cause exception", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 553(b)(B)", "aliases": [ "good cause" ], "short": "The finding that notice and comment is impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.", "text": "The finding that notice and comment is impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest. Must be stated and justified in the rule, and is a frequent target on review.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "interim-final-rule", "arbitrary-and-capricious" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#good-cause-exception" }, { "id": "guidance-document", "term": "Guidance document", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "policy statement", "interpretive rule" ], "short": "An agency statement of general applicability that is not a legislative rule.", "text": "An agency statement of general applicability that is not a legislative rule. Interpretive rules and general statements of policy are exempt from notice and comment; the line between those and a legislative rule is heavily litigated.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "sub-regulatory-guidance", "notice-and-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#guidance-document" }, { "id": "interim-final-rule", "term": "Interim final rule", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "IFR", "interim rule" ], "short": "A rule issued with immediate or near-immediate effect, taking comment afterward.", "text": "A rule issued with immediate or near-immediate effect, taking comment afterward. Requires a valid exception to notice and comment.", "note": "An IFR is binding law that arrived without a comment period. For implementation tracking it satisfies the mandate; for litigation exposure it is a distinctly weaker position. Both facts are true and they must not be merged into one status.", "see_also": [ "good-cause-exception", "direct-final-rule", "notice-and-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#interim-final-rule" }, { "id": "lookback-window", "term": "Lookback window", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "CRA lookback", "60 legislative days" ], "short": "The period during which Congress may disapprove a rule.", "text": "The period during which Congress may disapprove a rule. Counted in legislative and session days, not calendar days, so the real deadline depends on the chamber calendar.", "note": "Legislative-day arithmetic cannot be done with a date library. Get it wrong and every CRA exposure window in the corpus is wrong.", "see_also": [ "congressional-review-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#lookback-window" }, { "id": "nepa", "term": "NEPA", "category": "admin", "cite": "42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq.", "aliases": [ "National Environmental Policy Act", "environmental review" ], "short": "Requires environmental review of major federal actions.", "text": "Requires environmental review of major federal actions. Procedural, not substantive — it compels analysis, not any particular outcome. The dominant source of timeline risk for anything federally funded that gets built.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "categorical-exclusion", "eis" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#nepa" }, { "id": "notice-and-comment", "term": "Notice and comment", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 553", "aliases": [ "informal rulemaking", "section 553" ], "short": "The default rulemaking process: publish a proposal, take public comment, respond to significant comments in the final rule.", "text": "The default rulemaking process: publish a proposal, take public comment, respond to significant comments in the final rule. A rule that skips it without a valid exception is vulnerable on that ground alone.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "nprm", "good-cause-exception", "final-rule" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#notice-and-comment" }, { "id": "nprm", "term": "NPRM", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "notice of proposed rulemaking", "proposed rule" ], "short": "The published proposal that opens a comment period.", "text": "The published proposal that opens a comment period. The first machine-observable evidence that an agency is acting on a delegation.", "note": "This is the primary resolution event for statute-to-rulemaking joins. It is dated, published, citable, and searchable the day it appears, which is why the Federal Register poll starts on day one rather than near the deadline.", "see_also": [ "notice-and-comment", "final-rule", "unified-agenda" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#nprm" }, { "id": "oira-review", "term": "OIRA review", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "OMB review", "EO 12866 review" ], "short": "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review of significant rules before publication.", "text": "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs review of significant rules before publication. Reviews are logged with dates, so the queue is observable.", "note": "A rule sitting at OIRA is at a known, timestamped waypoint between drafted and published. Time-at-OIRA is one of the few directly measurable covariates in the whole implementation chain.", "see_also": [ "eo-12866", "significant-rule", "unified-agenda" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#oira-review" }, { "id": "paperwork-reduction-act", "term": "Paperwork Reduction Act", "category": "admin", "cite": "44 U.S.C. § 3501 et seq.", "aliases": [ "PRA", "OMB control number" ], "short": "Requires OMB approval before an agency may collect information from the public.", "text": "Requires OMB approval before an agency may collect information from the public. A collection without a control number cannot be enforced.", "note": "PRA clearance is a real, dated, frequently overlooked gate between a final rule and a program that can actually operate. A rule can be final and still inert.", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#paperwork-reduction-act" }, { "id": "regulations-gov", "term": "Regulations.gov", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "regs.gov" ], "short": "The federal portal for dockets and public comments, with an API.", "text": "The federal portal for dockets and public comments, with an API.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "docket-id", "mass-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#regulations-gov" }, { "id": "regulatory-flexibility-act", "term": "Regulatory Flexibility Act", "category": "admin", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 601 et seq.", "aliases": [ "RFA", "small entity analysis" ], "short": "Requires analysis of a rule's effect on small entities, or a certification of no significant impact.", "text": "Requires analysis of a rule's effect on small entities, or a certification of no significant impact. The certification is itself reviewable.", "note": "", "see_also": [], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#regulatory-flexibility-act" }, { "id": "rin", "term": "RIN", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Regulation Identifier Number" ], "short": "The identifier tracking a rulemaking across the Unified Agenda and the Federal Register, from first appearance to final rule.", "text": "The identifier tracking a rulemaking across the Unified Agenda and the Federal Register, from first appearance to final rule. Reused across agencies and reassigned over time.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "unified-agenda", "docket-id", "identifier-collision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#rin" }, { "id": "significant-rule", "term": "Significant regulatory action", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "significant", "economically significant", "section 3(f)(1)" ], "short": "A rule meeting EO 12866's thresholds — most familiarly an annual effect on the economy above a set dollar figure.", "text": "A rule meeting EO 12866's thresholds — most familiarly an annual effect on the economy above a set dollar figure. Triggers OIRA review and a regulatory impact analysis.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "oira-review", "eo-12866" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#significant-rule" }, { "id": "sub-regulatory-guidance", "term": "Sub-regulatory guidance", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "subregulatory guidance", "program instruction", "FAQ", "transmittal" ], "short": "Everything an agency issues that shapes behavior without going through rulemaking: FAQs, Dear Colleague letters, CMS transmittals, IRS notices, program instructions, manuals.", "text": "Everything an agency issues that shapes behavior without going through rulemaking: FAQs, Dear Colleague letters, CMS transmittals, IRS notices, program instructions, manuals.", "note": "A large share of how statutes actually bind is here, none of it is in the Federal Register, and it is edited and deleted silently with no version history. Nobody archives it. This is the single most urgent gap the daily snapshot exists to close, and it is the one place community expertise beats any crawler.", "see_also": [ "guidance-document", "report-language", "dear-colleague-letter" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#sub-regulatory-guidance" }, { "id": "substantially-the-same", "term": "Substantially the same", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [], "short": "The CRA's bar on reissuing a disapproved rule.", "text": "The CRA's bar on reissuing a disapproved rule. Undefined in the statute and almost never litigated, so it operates mainly as deterrence.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "congressional-review-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#substantially-the-same" }, { "id": "unified-agenda", "term": "Unified Agenda", "category": "admin", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Regulatory Agenda", "semiannual agenda" ], "short": "The semiannual publication of what each agency intends to do and when.", "text": "The semiannual publication of what each agency intends to do and when. Self-reported, routinely slipped, and published on a schedule.", "note": "The Agenda is a forecast the government makes about itself, twice a year, in writing. That makes it a graded baseline in the Ledger rather than a data source to trust — a named competitor whose accuracy is measurable.", "see_also": [ "rin", "oira-review", "the-ledger" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#unified-agenda" }, { "id": "amicus-brief", "term": "Amicus brief", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Sup. Ct. R. 37; Fed. R. App. P. 29", "aliases": [ "amicus", "amici", "amicus curiae", "friend of the court" ], "short": "A brief from someone who is not a party, filed at the certiorari stage to argue a case is worth taking or at the merits stage to argue the outcome.", "text": "A brief from someone who is not a party, filed at the certiorari stage to argue a case is worth taking or at the merits stage to argue the outcome. Since 2023 the Supreme Court requires neither party consent nor leave of court, and Rule 37.6 requires a footnote disclosing party counsel who authored the brief and anyone other than the amicus who paid for it.", "note": "A brief records that an entity engaged with a case, never that it changed one — the judicial form of the trap in `lda-filing`. Counting briefs measures participation, and the docket supports nothing stronger.", "see_also": [ "certiorari", "lda-filing" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#amicus-brief" }, { "id": "arbitrary-and-capricious", "term": "Arbitrary and capricious", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A)", "aliases": [ "A&C", "State Farm review" ], "short": "The standard for reviewing an agency's reasoning.", "text": "The standard for reviewing an agency's reasoning. The agency must examine the relevant data and articulate a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made. The most common ground on which rules are actually struck down.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "hard-look", "vacatur", "apa" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#arbitrary-and-capricious" }, { "id": "auer-kisor", "term": "Auer / Kisor", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452 (1997); Kisor v. Wilkie, 588 U.S. 558 (2019)", "aliases": [ "Auer deference", "Kisor" ], "short": "Deference to an agency's reading of its own regulation, as narrowed by Kisor: the rule must be genuinely ambiguous after exhausting the tools of construction, and the reading must be the agency's authoritative, considered position.", "text": "Deference to an agency's reading of its own regulation, as narrowed by Kisor: the rule must be genuinely ambiguous after exhausting the tools of construction, and the reading must be the agency's authoritative, considered position.", "note": "*Kisor* survived *Loper Bright* because it concerns regulations rather than statutes. That distinction decides which challenges are still weak, and conflating the two mis-scores a whole class of litigation exposure.", "see_also": [ "loper-bright", "guidance-document" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#auer-kisor" }, { "id": "certiorari", "term": "Certiorari", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "28 U.S.C. § 1254; Sup. Ct. R. 10, 13", "aliases": [ "cert", "cert petition", "writ of certiorari", "cert denied", "cert granted" ], "short": "The Supreme Court's discretionary review.", "text": "The Supreme Court's discretionary review. The losing party petitions within 90 days of judgment, and by the Court's own practice four justices must vote to hear it. Rule 10 names what the Court is looking for — chiefly a circuit-split or an unsettled question of federal law — and says in terms that being wronged below is not itself a reason.", "note": "**a denial of certiorari is not a ruling on the merits and sets no precedent.** It leaves the decision below standing in that circuit and nowhere else, so a card that reads \"cert denied\" as the Supreme Court upholding a rule is wrong twice over: about what was decided, and about where it applies.", "see_also": [ "circuit-split", "vacatur", "amicus-brief" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#certiorari" }, { "id": "chevron", "term": "Chevron deference", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Chevron U.S.A. v. NRDC, 467 U.S. 837 (1984)", "aliases": [ "Chevron", "two-step" ], "short": "The overruled framework: if a statute was ambiguous, a reasonable agency interpretation controlled.", "text": "The overruled framework: if a statute was ambiguous, a reasonable agency interpretation controlled. Still essential vocabulary, because forty years of case law and every pre-2024 observation in the corpus is denominated in it.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "loper-bright", "skidmore" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#chevron" }, { "id": "circuit-split", "term": "Circuit split", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "split", "conflicting circuits" ], "short": "Different courts of appeals reaching different conclusions on the same question.", "text": "Different courts of appeals reaching different conclusions on the same question. A rule can be vacated in one circuit and in force in another until the Supreme Court resolves it.", "note": "Legal status becomes **geographic**. For a state-resolved card, the governing circuit is part of the answer, not a footnote.", "see_also": [ "vacatur" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#circuit-split" }, { "id": "corner-post", "term": "Corner Post", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Corner Post v. Board of Governors, 603 U.S. 799 (2024)", "aliases": [], "short": "The APA's six-year limitations period runs from when a plaintiff is injured, not from when the rule was published — so a newly formed entity may challenge an old rule.", "text": "The APA's six-year limitations period runs from when a plaintiff is injured, not from when the rule was published — so a newly formed entity may challenge an old rule.", "note": "It removes the assumption that a rule surviving six years is settled. Every rule in the corpus has an open challenge window, which changes the shape of the litigation hazard rather than its level.", "see_also": [ "vacatur", "standing" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#corner-post" }, { "id": "hard-look", "term": "Hard look", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "hard look review" ], "short": "The demanding application of arbitrary and capricious review: did the agency genuinely consider the alternatives, the comments, and the evidence.", "text": "The demanding application of arbitrary and capricious review: did the agency genuinely consider the alternatives, the comments, and the evidence.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "arbitrary-and-capricious" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#hard-look" }, { "id": "jarkesy", "term": "Jarkesy", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "SEC v. Jarkesy, 603 U.S. 109 (2024)", "aliases": [], "short": "Where an agency seeks civil penalties for conduct analogous to a common-law claim, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial in an Article III court, not an in-house proceeding.", "text": "Where an agency seeks civil penalties for conduct analogous to a common-law claim, the Seventh Amendment entitles the defendant to a jury trial in an Article III court, not an in-house proceeding.", "note": "It constrains the **enforcement** link of the chain, which is the least modeled and the one where a statute finally reaches a person.", "see_also": [ "nondelegation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#jarkesy" }, { "id": "loper-bright", "term": "Loper Bright", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, 603 U.S. 369 (2024)", "aliases": [ "Loper" ], "short": "Overruled Chevron.", "text": "Overruled Chevron. Courts now exercise independent judgment on questions of statutory interpretation rather than deferring to a reasonable agency reading. Express delegations of authority are still respected.", "note": "This is a **regime change in the hazard model**, not a covariate. `P(survives litigation)` fitted on pre-2024 data does not transfer, and any backtest crossing June 2024 has to say so.", "see_also": [ "chevron", "skidmore", "major-questions", "arbitrary-and-capricious" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#loper-bright" }, { "id": "major-questions", "term": "Major questions doctrine", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "West Virginia v. EPA, 597 U.S. 697 (2022)", "aliases": [ "MQD" ], "short": "For questions of vast economic and political significance, an agency must point to clear congressional authorization.", "text": "For questions of vast economic and political significance, an agency must point to clear congressional authorization. Operates as a canon against reading old, general statutes to support new, large programs.", "note": "This is the highest-signal single feature for litigation risk on a delegation, and it is partly extractable from text — a broad grant of authority under an aging statute plus a large economic footprint is the profile.", "see_also": [ "nondelegation", "loper-bright", "delegation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#major-questions" }, { "id": "nondelegation", "term": "Nondelegation doctrine", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "intelligible principle" ], "short": "The principle that Congress may not transfer legislative power to the executive.", "text": "The principle that Congress may not transfer legislative power to the executive. Operationally dormant for decades under the permissive intelligible principle test, and the subject of sustained revival efforts.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "major-questions", "delegation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#nondelegation" }, { "id": "preemption", "term": "Preemption", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2", "aliases": [ "preempt", "express preemption", "field preemption", "conflict preemption", "obstacle preemption" ], "short": "Federal law displacing state or local law.", "text": "Federal law displacing state or local law. Express when the statute says so; field when federal regulation is so pervasive it leaves no room; conflict when compliance with both is impossible; obstacle when state law frustrates the federal purpose.", "note": "Preemption is the mechanism type with the most state-specific consequence and the one that most reliably makes a provision locally newsworthy. It is also the one where a card most easily overclaims — express preemption is a fact you can quote, obstacle preemption is a prediction about litigation.", "see_also": [ "savings-clause", "private-right-of-action", "umra" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#preemption" }, { "id": "private-right-of-action", "term": "Private right of action", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "PRA (private right of action)", "implied right of action" ], "short": "Whether a statute lets a private party sue to enforce it.", "text": "Whether a statute lets a private party sue to enforce it. Express when the statute creates it; implied rights are now rarely found. ---", "note": "A mechanism type with a completely different downstream signature from a delegation. A delegation resolves through an agency on a deadline; a private right of action resolves through a docket, with no deadline and a different observable trail entirely.", "see_also": [ "preemption", "mechanism-type" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#private-right-of-action" }, { "id": "remand-without-vacatur", "term": "Remand without vacatur", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "remanded without vacatur" ], "short": "Sending a rule back for further justification while leaving it in force.", "text": "Sending a rule back for further justification while leaving it in force. The rule still binds during the remand.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "vacatur" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#remand-without-vacatur" }, { "id": "ripeness", "term": "Ripeness", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "fitness for review", "pre-enforcement challenge" ], "short": "Whether a challenge has arrived too early.", "text": "Whether a challenge has arrived too early. Governs whether a rule can be attacked before it is enforced against anyone.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "standing", "effective-date" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#ripeness" }, { "id": "skidmore", "term": "Skidmore respect", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U.S. 134 (1944)", "aliases": [ "Skidmore deference" ], "short": "Agency views carry weight to the extent they are persuasive — thoroughness, consistency, validity of reasoning.", "text": "Agency views carry weight to the extent they are persuasive — thoroughness, consistency, validity of reasoning. The weaker standard the field has substantially returned to.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "loper-bright", "chevron" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#skidmore" }, { "id": "standing", "term": "Standing", "category": "doctrine", "cite": "U.S. Const. art. III", "aliases": [ "Article III standing", "injury in fact" ], "short": "Injury in fact, traceable to the defendant, redressable by the court.", "text": "Injury in fact, traceable to the defendant, redressable by the court. Decides who may challenge a rule at all, and therefore how much of a rule's exposure is real.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "ripeness", "corner-post" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#standing" }, { "id": "vacatur", "term": "Vacatur", "category": "doctrine", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "vacated", "vacate the rule" ], "short": "The remedy of setting a rule aside, treating it as never having been effective.", "text": "The remedy of setting a rule aside, treating it as never having been effective. The clean negative resolution event.", "note": "`vacated` and `remanded without vacatur` are different states with different downstream consequences and are routinely reported as one. A vacated rule is gone; a remanded rule is still binding while the agency fixes it.", "see_also": [ "remand-without-vacatur", "arbitrary-and-capricious" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#vacatur" }, { "id": "applicability-date", "term": "Applicability date", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "applies to", "taxable years beginning after" ], "short": "When a provision applies to conduct, as distinct from when the statute takes effect.", "text": "When a provision applies to conduct, as distinct from when the statute takes effect. Common in tax and benefits law and routinely different from the effective date.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "effective-date", "compliance-date" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#applicability-date" }, { "id": "as-amended", "term": "As amended", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "as amended by" ], "short": "The signal that a citation refers to a provision in its current form rather than as originally enacted.", "text": "The signal that a citation refers to a provision in its current form rather than as originally enacted. Without a date, an as amended citation is not point-in-time and is not checkable.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "point-in-time", "us-code" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#as-amended" }, { "id": "conforming-amendment", "term": "Conforming amendment", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "conforming changes", "technical and conforming" ], "short": "An amendment updating other statutes for consistency with a substantive change.", "text": "An amendment updating other statutes for consistency with a substantive change. Usually mechanical.", "note": "Conforming amendments are excluded from obligation counts and are exactly where a substantive change occasionally hides. Exclude them from the count, keep them in the graph.", "see_also": [ "technical-amendment", "definitional-amendment", "cross-reference" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#conforming-amendment" }, { "id": "cross-reference", "term": "Cross-reference", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "reference to another section", "as defined in" ], "short": "A provision's citation to another provision.", "text": "A provision's citation to another provision. The edges of the statutory graph.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "blast-radius", "definitional-amendment", "notwithstanding" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cross-reference" }, { "id": "deadline-anchor", "term": "Deadline anchor", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "not later than", "days after enactment" ], "short": "What a statutory deadline is counted from: enactment, appropriation, a trigger event, or nothing.", "text": "What a statutory deadline is counted from: enactment, appropriation, a trigger event, or nothing. Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment anchors to enactment and is computable the day the law is signed.", "note": "The anchor is a first-class extracted field, not a parsing detail. Only enactment-anchored deadlines are computable at ingestion; the rest need their anchor event observed before a clock can start.", "see_also": [ "trigger", "shall-vs-may", "subject-to-appropriations" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#deadline-anchor" }, { "id": "definitional-amendment", "term": "Definitional amendment", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "definition change", "amends the definition of" ], "short": "A change to a defined term, which alters every provision using that term without amending any of them.", "text": "A change to a defined term, which alters every provision using that term without amending any of them.", "note": "The motivating case for [blast radius](#blast-radius). A one-line definitional change can silently move the meaning of dozens of statutory sections and hundreds of CFR sections. Nothing in the text of those sections changes, so nothing that reads text alone will notice.", "see_also": [ "blast-radius", "cross-reference", "us-code" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#definitional-amendment" }, { "id": "delegation", "term": "Delegation", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "delegated authority", "the Secretary shall" ], "short": "A grant of authority from Congress to an agency.", "text": "A grant of authority from Congress to an agency. Downstream's central mechanism type: a delegation has a known downstream signature — proposed rule, final rule, challenge, enforcement — that can be fitted as a hazard model.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "mechanism-type", "shall-vs-may", "nondelegation", "nprm" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#delegation" }, { "id": "notwithstanding", "term": "Notwithstanding any other provision of law", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "notwithstanding clause" ], "short": "A clause overriding conflicting law without naming what it overrides.", "text": "A clause overriding conflicting law without naming what it overrides.", "note": "It creates a cross-reference edge to an unknown set of provisions — impossible to resolve by citation and consequential by design. Flag it as an unresolved blast-radius edge rather than dropping it.", "see_also": [ "blast-radius", "savings-clause", "cross-reference" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#notwithstanding" }, { "id": "orphaned-delegation", "term": "Orphaned delegation", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "orphan delegation", "never implemented" ], "short": "A statutory rulemaking mandate that never produced a final rule.", "text": "A statutory rulemaking mandate that never produced a final rule. Congress ordered it, the agency did not do it, and nobody noticed. ---", "note": "Hundreds exist across 1990-2020. Pure aggregation, no forecasting required, and a permanent standing dataset.", "see_also": [ "delegation", "silent" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#orphaned-delegation" }, { "id": "savings-clause", "term": "Savings clause", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "rule of construction", "nothing in this section shall be construed" ], "short": "Language preserving existing law, remedies, or authority from being displaced.", "text": "Language preserving existing law, remedies, or authority from being displaced. The usual counterweight to a preemption provision, and often the whole negotiated compromise.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "preemption", "severability" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#savings-clause" }, { "id": "severability", "term": "Severability", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "severability clause", "severable" ], "short": "Whether the rest of a statute survives if one part is held invalid.", "text": "Whether the rest of a statute survives if one part is held invalid. An express clause makes the drafters' intent explicit; without one a court infers it.", "note": "Severability decides whether litigation exposure on one provision is contained or systemic — the difference between one card changing and forty.", "see_also": [ "vacatur", "savings-clause" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#severability" }, { "id": "shall-vs-may", "term": "Shall versus may", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "shall", "may", "is authorized to", "obligation strength" ], "short": "shall creates a duty.", "text": "shall creates a duty. may and is authorized to create discretion. shall consider is a duty to think, not a duty to act.", "note": "This is the primary inclusion rule for extraction, and it is written down before anything runs. Counts: *shall issue regulations*, *shall promulgate*, *shall establish*, *shall submit a report*. Does not count: *shall consider*, *may issue* (tracked separately as discretionary), *nothing in this section shall be construed*.", "see_also": [ "such-sums", "subject-to-appropriations", "delegation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#shall-vs-may" }, { "id": "such-sums", "term": "Such sums as may be necessary", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "SSAN", "such sums" ], "short": "An authorization of appropriations with no dollar figure.", "text": "An authorization of appropriations with no dollar figure. Authorizes everything and nothing.", "note": "A card must never render this as an amount. There is no number to render, and the absence *is* the finding.", "see_also": [ "authorization", "authorization-appropriation-gap" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#such-sums" }, { "id": "sunset", "term": "Sunset", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "sunset provision", "expiration date", "expires" ], "short": "A date on which a provision ceases to be effective without further action.", "text": "A date on which a provision ceases to be effective without further action.", "note": "Sunsets are the most reliable forecastable events in the whole corpus — the date is in the text, and the reauthorization fight is on the calendar. The sunset cliff calendar is one query over this field.", "see_also": [ "scorekeeping", "trigger", "zombie-provision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#sunset" }, { "id": "technical-amendment", "term": "Technical amendment", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "technical correction" ], "short": "A correction of a citation, a typo, or a numbering error.", "text": "A correction of a citation, a typo, or a numbering error. Occasionally a technical amendment is substantive; the label is not a guarantee.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "conforming-amendment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#technical-amendment" }, { "id": "trigger", "term": "Trigger", "category": "draft", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "trigger event", "contingent effectiveness", "upon a determination that" ], "short": "A condition on which a provision's operation depends — a certification, a determination, a funding event, a date.", "text": "A condition on which a provision's operation depends — a certification, a determination, a funding event, a date.", "note": "A trigger-anchored deadline and an enactment-anchored deadline are not comparable, and pooling them distorts every compliance rate. Track separately; do not merge.", "see_also": [ "deadline-anchor", "subject-to-appropriations" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#trigger" }, { "id": "agency-acronyms", "term": "Agency acronyms", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "HUD", "FHFA", "FHA", "USDA", "RHS", "RD", "CFPB", "OCC", "FDIC", "FRB", "NCUA", "SEC", "HHS", "CMS", "IRS", "EPA", "DOT", "FHWA", "FTA", "DOE", "ED", "VA", "SBA", "FEMA", "DOL", "EBSA", "NIST" ], "short": "The controlled vocabulary for delegatedTo.", "text": "The controlled vocabulary for delegatedTo. Normalize at extraction; never store the string as drafted. | Acronym | Entity | Note | |---|---|---| | HUD | Housing and Urban Development | Department | | FHA | Federal Housing Administration | Inside HUD, not independent | | GNMA | Ginnie Mae | Government corporation inside HUD | | FHFA | Federal Housing Finance Agency | Independent; regulates the GSEs | | USDA-RD | USDA Rural Development | Rural housing programs | | RHS | Rural Housing Service | Inside USDA-RD | | CFPB | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau | Independent, funded through the Fed | | OCC | Comptroller of the Currency | Bureau of Treasury | | FDIC | Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation | Government corporation | | FRB | Federal Reserve Board | Independent | | NCUA | National Credit Union Administration | Independent | | CMS | Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services | Inside HHS | | EBSA | Employee Benefits Security Administration | Inside DOL | | FHWA / FTA | Federal Highway / Transit Administration | Inside DOT | ---", "note": "*the Secretary* in a HUD title means the Secretary of HUD, and the same phrase three titles later may mean Agriculture. Resolving `the Secretary` against the enclosing title is an extraction rule, not a nicety.", "see_also": [ "department-vs-independent-agency", "gse", "delegation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#agency-acronyms" }, { "id": "cbo", "term": "CBO", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Congressional Budget Office" ], "short": "Congress's nonpartisan cost estimator and baseline keeper.", "text": "Congress's nonpartisan cost estimator and baseline keeper.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cbo-baseline", "scorekeeping" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cbo" }, { "id": "crs", "term": "CRS", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Congressional Research Service", "CRS report" ], "short": "Congress's in-house research service.", "text": "Congress's in-house research service. Reports are authoritative summaries of legislation, publicly available, and an excellent free head start on version comparison.", "note": "A CRS report comparing bill versions is hand-built ground truth for the lineage matcher. Use it to evaluate the matcher, not to train it.", "see_also": [ "lineage-id" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#crs" }, { "id": "department-vs-independent-agency", "term": "Executive department versus independent agency", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "cabinet department", "independent agency" ], "short": "A department sits under a Secretary serving at the President's pleasure.", "text": "A department sits under a Secretary serving at the President's pleasure. An independent agency has statutory insulation — fixed terms, for-cause removal, multi-member leadership.", "note": "Insulation is a covariate on implementation. It changes how quickly an agenda turns over with an administration, and how a delegation behaves across a transition.", "see_also": [ "independent-regulatory-commission", "gse" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#department-vs-independent-agency" }, { "id": "gao", "term": "GAO", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Government Accountability Office" ], "short": "Congress's audit and evaluation arm.", "text": "Congress's audit and evaluation arm. Publishes legal decisions on appropriations law, ADA violations, and CRA rule determinations, and maintains open-recommendation tracking.", "note": "GAO does episodic, narrow versions of several things in this system, which makes it both a source and a graded baseline.", "see_also": [ "antideficiency-act", "congressional-review-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#gao" }, { "id": "government-corporation", "term": "Government corporation", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "wholly owned government corporation" ], "short": "A federal entity structured as a corporation — Ginnie Mae, the FDIC, the TVA.", "text": "A federal entity structured as a corporation — Ginnie Mae, the FDIC, the TVA. Distinct budget treatment and distinct reporting.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "gse", "ginnie-mae" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#government-corporation" }, { "id": "gse", "term": "Government-sponsored enterprise", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "GSE", "Fannie Mae", "Freddie Mac", "Federal Home Loan Bank" ], "short": "A congressionally chartered private corporation with a public mission.", "text": "A congressionally chartered private corporation with a public mission. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks. Not agencies, not appropriated, and regulated by FHFA.", "note": "A GSE directive is not a rulemaking and does not appear in the Federal Register. It arrives as a conservator directive, a seller-servicer guide update, or a capital rule — three different observation channels, one of which is not public.", "see_also": [ "ginnie-mae", "conforming-loan-limit" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#gse" }, { "id": "independent-regulatory-commission", "term": "Independent regulatory commission", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "IRC", "multi-member commission" ], "short": "A multi-member body with staggered terms and partisan balance requirements — SEC, FTC, FCC, NLRB, FERC.", "text": "A multi-member body with staggered terms and partisan balance requirements — SEC, FTC, FCC, NLRB, FERC. Quorum requirements mean vacancies can halt action entirely.", "note": "A commission without a quorum cannot issue a rule regardless of the statutory deadline. Vacancy state is an observable, dated, and almost never modeled predictor.", "see_also": [ "department-vs-independent-agency" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#independent-regulatory-commission" }, { "id": "jct", "term": "JCT", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Joint Committee on Taxation" ], "short": "The official revenue estimator for tax legislation.", "text": "The official revenue estimator for tax legislation.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "jct-estimate" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#jct" }, { "id": "oira", "term": "OIRA", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs" ], "short": "The OMB office that reviews significant rules and administers the Paperwork Reduction Act.", "text": "The OMB office that reviews significant rules and administers the Paperwork Reduction Act. Small, and positioned at the narrowest point of the rulemaking pipeline.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "oira-review", "paperwork-reduction-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#oira" }, { "id": "omb", "term": "OMB", "category": "inst", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Office of Management and Budget" ], "short": "The executive office running the budget, apportionment, and regulatory review.", "text": "The executive office running the budget, apportionment, and regulatory review. The chokepoint between what a statute requires and what an agency can actually do.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "oira-review", "apportionment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#omb" }, { "id": "fara", "term": "FARA", "category": "influence", "cite": "22 U.S.C. § 611 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Foreign Agents Registration Act" ], "short": "Disclosure by agents of foreign principals.", "text": "Disclosure by agents of foreign principals. Separate regime, separate database, different thresholds.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "lda-filing" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#fara" }, { "id": "lda-filing", "term": "LDA filing", "category": "influence", "cite": "2 U.S.C. § 1601 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Lobbying Disclosure Act", "LD-1", "LD-2", "quarterly filing" ], "short": "Quarterly disclosure by registered lobbyists of clients, issues, and lobbying income or expenses.", "text": "Quarterly disclosure by registered lobbyists of clients, issues, and lobbying income or expenses. Filed with the Senate and House, and available through an API.", "note": "Three constraints that are easy to violate and hard to walk back. **A filing records that an entity lobbied *on* a bill, not for or against it.** Spend is reported per registrant per quarter across every issue in the filing, so per-bill dollar attribution is fabrication. And the specific-issue text is free-form, so bill matching is string matching with all that implies.", "see_also": [ "specific-issue-text", "registrant", "fara" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#lda-filing" }, { "id": "mass-comment", "term": "Mass comment campaign", "category": "influence", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "comment campaign", "form comments", "duplicate comments" ], "short": "Large volumes of near-identical comments submitted to a docket.", "text": "Large volumes of near-identical comments submitted to a docket. Comment volume is not a vote — the agency must respond to significant comments, not to counts.", "note": "Any comment-derived statistic must deduplicate and disclose that it did. Reporting a raw count as public opinion is the single easiest way to be wrong loudly.", "see_also": [ "docket-id", "notice-and-comment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#mass-comment" }, { "id": "registrant", "term": "Registrant and client", "category": "influence", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "client", "lobbying firm", "in-house" ], "short": "The registrant is the firm or organization filing; the client is who they lobbied for.", "text": "The registrant is the firm or organization filing; the client is who they lobbied for. In-house lobbyists are their own client. Addresses on the filing are usually the registrant's Washington office, not the client's home state.", "note": "State resolution has to run off client geography, and client geography is frequently absent. If it is absent, the state panel says so rather than defaulting to the filing address.", "see_also": [ "lda-filing" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#registrant" }, { "id": "revolving-door", "term": "Revolving door", "category": "influence", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "cooling-off period", "post-employment restriction" ], "short": "Movement between government and the entities it regulates, and the statutory cooling-off periods that constrain it.", "text": "Movement between government and the entities it regulates, and the statutory cooling-off periods that constrain it. Observable through LDA registrations joined to prior federal employment. ---", "note": "", "see_also": [ "lda-filing" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#revolving-door" }, { "id": "specific-issue-text", "term": "Specific issue text", "category": "influence", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "specific lobbying issues", "issue text" ], "short": "The free-text field in an LD-2 describing what was lobbied on.", "text": "The free-text field in an LD-2 describing what was lobbied on. Where bill numbers appear, in whatever format the filer chose — H.R. 6644, HR6644, the ROAD Act, or a topic with no bill number at all.", "note": "Recall on bill matching is a measurable quantity here, and it is not 100%. Publish the matching rule and the recall estimate alongside any count derived from it.", "see_also": [ "lda-filing", "identifier-collision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#specific-issue-text" }, { "id": "ami", "term": "Area Median Income", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "AMI", "area median income", "30% AMI", "60% AMI" ], "short": "The income benchmark nearly every housing program's eligibility is expressed against.", "text": "The income benchmark nearly every housing program's eligibility is expressed against. HUD publishes income limits annually by household size and area, with adjustments and caps that make them not a simple percentage of the median.", "note": "*60% of AMI* is not 60% of the published median. The limits are the authority; the arithmetic is not. Cite the table, never recompute it.", "see_also": [ "fmr", "income-limits" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#ami" }, { "id": "build-to-rent", "term": "Build-to-rent", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "BTR", "single-family rental", "SFR" ], "short": "Single-family homes built as rental stock.", "text": "Single-family homes built as rental stock. The category that makes institutional-investor restrictions hard to draft — a restriction aimed at investors buying existing homes can inadvertently reach new construction.", "note": "Definitional edge cases in this area were actively negotiated in the ROAD to Housing Act, with provisions added and removed across versions. A live instance of a definitional amendment changing who a rule reaches.", "see_also": [ "definitional-amendment", "road-to-housing-act" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#build-to-rent" }, { "id": "by-right-zoning", "term": "By-right zoning", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "by right", "as of right", "ministerial approval" ], "short": "Development permitted without discretionary review if it meets objective standards.", "text": "Development permitted without discretionary review if it meets objective standards. The main lever in state and federal supply legislation, because discretionary review is where timelines go.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "preemption", "nepa" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#by-right-zoning" }, { "id": "cdbg", "term": "CDBG", "category": "housing", "cite": "42 U.S.C. § 5301 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Community Development Block Grant" ], "short": "HUD's flexible formula grant to states and localities for community development.", "text": "HUD's flexible formula grant to states and localities for community development. Formula-driven, so state-level effects are computable rather than estimated.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cdbg-dr", "home-program" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cdbg" }, { "id": "cdbg-dr", "term": "CDBG-DR", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "disaster recovery", "CDBG Disaster Recovery" ], "short": "CDBG funds appropriated for disaster recovery, historically through supplementals with appropriation-specific rules published as Federal Register notices rather than as regulations.", "text": "CDBG funds appropriated for disaster recovery, historically through supplementals with appropriation-specific rules published as Federal Register notices rather than as regulations.", "note": "The governing rules arrive as notices, not rules — outside the CFR and outside most tracking. A textbook case for why the Federal Register poll cannot be limited to proposed and final rules.", "see_also": [ "supplemental", "cdbg", "sub-regulatory-guidance" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#cdbg-dr" }, { "id": "conforming-loan-limit", "term": "Conforming loan limit", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "CLL", "conforming limit" ], "short": "The maximum loan size the GSEs may purchase, set annually by FHFA using a house-price index, with higher limits in high-cost areas.", "text": "The maximum loan size the GSEs may purchase, set annually by FHFA using a house-price index, with higher limits in high-cost areas. FHA limits are set separately, keyed to it.", "note": "An annually recomputed, county-level, published number driven by a formula in statute. It is the cleanest available instance of a `compute_formula` output — arithmetic on published inputs, not an estimate.", "see_also": [ "gse", "agency-acronyms" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#conforming-loan-limit" }, { "id": "fmr", "term": "Fair Market Rent", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "FMR", "fair market rents" ], "short": "HUD's annual estimate of rent by bedroom count and metropolitan area, setting voucher payment standards.", "text": "HUD's annual estimate of rent by bedroom count and metropolitan area, setting voucher payment standards. Published annually with a comment process.", "note": "FMR is a published annual number at sub-state geography. It is one of the few places a housing card can carry a real, current, citable local figure without estimating anything.", "see_also": [ "housing-choice-voucher", "ami" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#fmr" }, { "id": "ginnie-mae", "term": "Ginnie Mae", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "GNMA", "Government National Mortgage Association" ], "short": "The government corporation guaranteeing MBS backed by federally insured loans — FHA, VA, USDA.", "text": "The government corporation guaranteeing MBS backed by federally insured loans — FHA, VA, USDA. Guarantees the security, not the loan.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "gse", "government-corporation" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#ginnie-mae" }, { "id": "home-program", "term": "HOME", "category": "housing", "cite": "42 U.S.C. § 12701 et seq.", "aliases": [ "HOME Investment Partnerships Program" ], "short": "HUD's formula block grant for affordable housing production and rehabilitation, allocated to participating jurisdictions.", "text": "HUD's formula block grant for affordable housing production and rehabilitation, allocated to participating jurisdictions.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "cdbg", "housing-trust-fund" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#home-program" }, { "id": "housing-choice-voucher", "term": "Housing Choice Voucher", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "HCV", "voucher", "tenant-based" ], "short": "Tenant-based rental assistance administered by public housing agencies, portable with the tenant, capped by the payment standard derived from the FMR.", "text": "Tenant-based rental assistance administered by public housing agencies, portable with the tenant, capped by the payment standard derived from the FMR.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "fmr", "pha", "section-8" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#housing-choice-voucher" }, { "id": "housing-trust-fund", "term": "Housing Trust Fund", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "HTF", "National Housing Trust Fund" ], "short": "A formula block grant for extremely low income housing, funded by an assessment on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rather than by appropriation.", "text": "A formula block grant for extremely low income housing, funded by an assessment on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rather than by appropriation.", "note": "Funded off GSE volume, so its size moves with the mortgage market and not with any appropriations act. An appropriations-only view of housing funding does not see it.", "see_also": [ "gse", "home-program" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#housing-trust-fund" }, { "id": "hud-code", "term": "HUD Code", "category": "housing", "cite": "42 U.S.C. § 5401 et seq.", "aliases": [ "Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards", "manufactured housing" ], "short": "The federal construction standard for manufactured housing, which preempts state and local building codes for covered homes.", "text": "The federal construction standard for manufactured housing, which preempts state and local building codes for covered homes. The rare federal building standard.", "note": "An express preemption of local law, in a statute, for a specific product class. Definitional changes here — what counts as a manufactured home — propagate directly into state and local authority, which is blast radius with a jurisdictional dimension.", "see_also": [ "preemption", "definitional-amendment" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#hud-code" }, { "id": "income-limits", "term": "Income limits", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "HUD income limits", "very low income", "extremely low income" ], "short": "The published eligibility thresholds — extremely low, very low, low income — derived from AMI with statutory floors and caps.", "text": "The published eligibility thresholds — extremely low, very low, low income — derived from AMI with statutory floors and caps.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "ami" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#income-limits" }, { "id": "lihtc", "term": "LIHTC", "category": "housing", "cite": "26 U.S.C. § 42", "aliases": [ "Low-Income Housing Tax Credit", "housing credit" ], "short": "The primary federal subsidy for affordable rental production, delivered through the tax code and administered by state housing agencies under a QAP.", "text": "The primary federal subsidy for affordable rental production, delivered through the tax code and administered by state housing agencies under a QAP. Treasury and IRS, not HUD.", "note": "The largest affordable-housing program in the country is a tax expenditure. A pipeline that looks only at HUD will miss it entirely, and its delegations run to IRS.", "see_also": [ "qap", "agency-acronyms" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#lihtc" }, { "id": "mtw", "term": "Moving to Work", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "MTW", "MTW cohort" ], "short": "A demonstration giving selected PHAs waiver authority and funding fungibility in exchange for evaluation.", "text": "A demonstration giving selected PHAs waiver authority and funding fungibility in exchange for evaluation. Expanded by adding cohorts.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "pha", "rad" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#mtw" }, { "id": "pbra", "term": "Project-based rental assistance", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "PBRA", "project-based Section 8" ], "short": "Assistance attached to a property rather than a household, under long-term contracts with owners.", "text": "Assistance attached to a property rather than a household, under long-term contracts with owners.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "section-8", "rad" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#pbra" }, { "id": "pha", "term": "Public housing agency", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "PHA", "housing authority", "LHA" ], "short": "The local entity administering public housing and vouchers.", "text": "The local entity administering public housing and vouchers. Roughly 3,000 nationally, and the implementation layer between a federal rule and a household.", "note": "PHAs are the last mile, and their capacity varies enormously. A federal program change lands unevenly for reasons that are structural rather than political.", "see_also": [ "housing-choice-voucher", "mtw" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#pha" }, { "id": "qap", "term": "QAP", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Qualified Allocation Plan" ], "short": "The state-level plan governing how LIHTC credits are awarded.", "text": "The state-level plan governing how LIHTC credits are awarded. Where federal law becomes a set of fifty different state priorities.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "lihtc" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#qap" }, { "id": "rad", "term": "RAD", "category": "housing", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Rental Assistance Demonstration" ], "short": "Converts public housing and other legacy assistance to long-term project-based contracts, enabling private capital for recapitalization.", "text": "Converts public housing and other legacy assistance to long-term project-based contracts, enabling private capital for recapitalization. Operates under a unit cap set by statute.", "note": "A statutory unit cap is a clean, countable, dated observable. Raising a cap is a provision whose implementation status is a number, not a judgment.", "see_also": [ "pbra", "mtw" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#rad" }, { "id": "road-to-housing-act", "term": "ROAD to Housing Act", "category": "housing", "cite": "Pub. L. 119-101", "aliases": [ "21st Century ROAD to Housing Act", "H.R. 6644", "S. 2651", "ROAD Act" ], "short": "The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, enacted 11 July 2026 as Pub.", "text": "The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, enacted 11 July 2026 as Pub. L. 119-101 via H.R. 6644, becoming law without the President's signature. Descended from S. 2651, the ROAD to Housing Act of 2025 (Scott/Warren), reported by Senate Banking 24-0. Nine titles. First statutory deadline 7 January 2027. ---", "note": "Downstream's first card corpus. Its provisions were stripped from the FY26 NDAA, declared dead, and resurfaced six months later in a new vehicle — the zombie mechanic, documented, on the first bill in the system.", "see_also": [ "zombie-provision", "vehicle", "provision" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#road-to-housing-act" }, { "id": "section-8", "term": "Section 8", "category": "housing", "cite": "42 U.S.C. § 1437f", "aliases": [ "Section 8", "tenant-based assistance" ], "short": "The rental assistance authority covering both tenant-based vouchers and project-based assistance.", "text": "The rental assistance authority covering both tenant-based vouchers and project-based assistance. Section 8 refers to a statutory section, not a single program.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "housing-choice-voucher", "pbra" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#section-8" }, { "id": "as-of", "term": "as_of", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "as of", "asOf", "as_of date" ], "short": "The date a claim is true as of.", "text": "The date a claim is true as of. Present on every query, every card, every chart, and every export, in mono, on the surface.", "note": "An artifact without a visible `as_of` is malformed. This is not a style preference; it is the only thing that makes a claim checkable a year later.", "see_also": [ "point-in-time", "bitemporal" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#as-of" }, { "id": "base-rate", "term": "Base rate", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "reference class" ], "short": "The historical frequency of an outcome in a comparable class.", "text": "The historical frequency of an outcome in a comparable class. A Layer 1 fact about the past, not a forecast about the present.", "note": "Stating a base rate is reporting. *Applying* it to a specific pending obligation is forecasting. The card does the first and not the second, and the line between them is exactly one sentence wide.", "see_also": [ "calibration", "layer-1", "layer-2" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#base-rate" }, { "id": "bitemporal", "term": "Bitemporal", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "bitemporal storage", "valid time", "transaction time" ], "short": "Storing both when a fact was true in the world (valid_from / valid_to) and when the system learned it (recorded_at).", "text": "Storing both when a fact was true in the world (valid_from / valid_to) and when the system learned it (recorded_at). Enables answering what did we believe on that date as well as what was true.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "point-in-time", "as-of" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#bitemporal" }, { "id": "blast-radius", "term": "Blast radius", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "cross-reference blast radius" ], "short": "Everything a change silently touches through cross-references and defined terms, without any of it being amended.", "text": "Everything a change silently touches through cross-references and defined terms, without any of it being amended.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "definitional-amendment", "cross-reference", "notwithstanding" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#blast-radius" }, { "id": "brier-score", "term": "Brier score", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Brier" ], "short": "The mean squared error of probabilistic forecasts.", "text": "The mean squared error of probabilistic forecasts. Decomposes into calibration, resolution, and uncertainty.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "calibration" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#brier-score" }, { "id": "calibration", "term": "Calibration", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "calibrated", "calibration curve" ], "short": "Whether stated probabilities match observed frequencies — of the things called 70% likely, did about 70% happen.", "text": "Whether stated probabilities match observed frequencies — of the things called 70% likely, did about 70% happen. Distinct from accuracy, and the property this system is actually built to have.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "brier-score", "base-rate", "the-ledger" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#calibration" }, { "id": "exposure", "term": "Exposure", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "exposures" ], "short": "What Downstream states instead of a recommendation: who is affected, by what mechanism, on what timeline, under what conditions.", "text": "What Downstream states instead of a recommendation: who is affected, by what mechanism, on what timeline, under what conditions. Never buy, sell, should, or the right move is. --- Layer 1 vocabulary. Definitions are of terms of art, not legal advice, and the citations point at the authority rather than standing in for it. Where a term is contested, this file says so rather than picking a side. Corrections belong in the same typeface as the entries.", "note": "A legal constraint before it is a style rule. The publisher's exemption depends on it, and it is enforced at the schema level, not just in copy.", "see_also": [ "layer-2" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#exposure" }, { "id": "layer-1", "term": "Layer 1", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "the statutory graph", "the corpus" ], "short": "The deterministic, open, fully citable statutory graph: provisions, mechanisms, identifiers, cross-references, the observed record.", "text": "The deterministic, open, fully citable statutory graph: provisions, mechanisms, identifiers, cross-references, the observed record. Free by design.", "note": "A card carries Layer 1 only. That is what makes it shareable without anyone having to trust a forecast, and it is enforced in the generation pipeline rather than asserted as a value.", "see_also": [ "layer-2", "provision", "the-ledger" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#layer-1" }, { "id": "layer-2", "term": "Layer 2", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "the model", "the forecasting engine" ], "short": "The probabilistic transition model on top of Layer 1 — implementation hazard, litigation survival, magnitude, timing.", "text": "The probabilistic transition model on top of Layer 1 — implementation hazard, litigation survival, magnitude, timing. Proprietary, and never on a card.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "layer-1", "calibration", "exposure" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#layer-2" }, { "id": "mechanism-type", "term": "Mechanism type", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "ProvisionMechanism", "mechanism taxonomy" ], "short": "The classification of what a provision does — delegation, authorization, preemption, private right of action, definitional amendment, appropriation, sunset, trigger.", "text": "The classification of what a provision does — delegation, authorization, preemption, private right of action, definitional amendment, appropriation, sunset, trigger. Each type has a different downstream signature.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "provision", "delegation", "preemption" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#mechanism-type" }, { "id": "negative-space", "term": "Negative space", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "what didn't pass", "what was struck" ], "short": "The set of provisions that were considered and did not survive.", "text": "The set of provisions that were considered and did not survive. Usually invisible, frequently more informative than what passed.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "zombie-provision", "silent" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#negative-space" }, { "id": "point-in-time", "term": "Point-in-time", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "PIT", "vintaged", "as-of discipline" ], "short": "Reconstructing what was known at a past moment, using the data as it existed then rather than as it has since been revised.", "text": "Reconstructing what was known at a past moment, using the data as it existed then rather than as it has since been revised. ALFRED vintages rather than FRED; eCFR versions rather than current text.", "note": "Without it, backtests leak future information and every calibration number is fiction. It is the first of the three constraints that do not loosen.", "see_also": [ "bitemporal", "as-of", "ecfr" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#point-in-time" }, { "id": "provision", "term": "Provision", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "clause", "section" ], "short": "The atomic unit.", "text": "The atomic unit. Not the bill. A single leaf clause with one identifiable legal mechanism, classified by mechanism type and carrying its own identifier.", "note": "This is the central insight of the whole system. Bills are heterogeneous bundles; provisions are typed objects with downstream signatures you can fit a model on. Everything else follows from taking the unit seriously.", "see_also": [ "mechanism-type", "provision-id", "lineage-id" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#provision" }, { "id": "resolution-query", "term": "Resolution query", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "resolver", "resolution criteria" ], "short": "The machine-checkable query, written before the forecast, that will determine whether it came true.", "text": "The machine-checkable query, written before the forecast, that will determine whether it came true.", "note": "*if you can't write the resolution query before making the forecast, it isn't a forecast.* This is the rule that separates this from the unfalsifiable confidence the category runs on.", "see_also": [ "the-ledger", "calibration" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#resolution-query" }, { "id": "silent", "term": "Silent", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "no observable action" ], "short": "A status: no observable action of any kind.", "text": "A status: no observable action of any kind. Not a gap — a finding. Renders as a dash, never as zero.", "note": "Conflating *silent* with *zero* is the error a chart makes invisible, and it is the difference between an agency that did nothing and an agency we did not observe.", "see_also": [ "orphaned-delegation", "negative-space" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#silent" }, { "id": "the-ledger", "term": "The Ledger", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "Ledger", "ledger entry" ], "short": "The public, append-only, externally anchored record of every claim and forecast with its eventual resolution.", "text": "The public, append-only, externally anchored record of every claim and forecast with its eventual resolution. Includes the misses, in the same typeface as the hits.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "resolution-query", "brier-score", "calibration" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#the-ledger" }, { "id": "zombie-provision", "term": "Zombie provision", "category": "house", "cite": null, "aliases": [ "zombie", "zombie tracker", "resurfaced" ], "short": "A provision that was stripped, failed, or sunset, and later reappeared in another vehicle.", "text": "A provision that was stripped, failed, or sunset, and later reappeared in another vehicle. The tracker follows them by lineage_id and text similarity across bills.", "note": "", "see_also": [ "byrd-rule", "vehicle", "lineage-id", "sunset" ], "url": "https://downstream.sh/domain-language#zombie-provision" } ] }