How Cui Bono Works
Understanding our methodology for identifying potential industry beneficiaries in legislation.
Overview
Cui Bono is a transparency tool that helps citizens understand what's actually in legislation. We analyze bill text to identify specific clauses that may benefit particular industries, groups, or countries.
Coming Soon: We're building campaign finance integration to show connections between industries affected by legislation and donations to sponsors. Our goal is to surface information so citizens can draw their own conclusions.
Data Sources
Legislative Text
We pull bill text directly from Congress.gov, the official source for U.S. legislative data.
Congress.gov APICampaign Finance
Campaign finance data integration is planned for a future release.
Our Analysis Process
Ingest Bill Text
We download the full text of legislation from Congress.gov, including all versions (introduced, amended, enrolled, etc.).
Detect Changes
We compare bill versions to identify exactly what text was added, removed, or modified between versions. We also analyze baseline introduced text to capture provisions present from the start.
Classification & Analysis
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and large language models to analyze each clause and identify:
- Mechanism: What the clause does (tax credit, reporting requirement, etc.)
- Direction: Whether it expands, reduces, or introduces something
- Targets: Which industries or groups are affected
- Effect: Whether the impact is positive, negative, or ambiguous
Industry Mapping
We map identified beneficiaries to standardized industry categories, enabling aggregation and analysis across legislation.
Understanding Confidence Scores
Every identification includes a confidence score (0-100%) indicating how certain the analysis is:
Strong textual evidence directly links this clause to industry benefit.
Some indicators present, but connection is less certain.
Possible connection, but limited evidence. Treat with extra caution.
Limitations & Disclaimers
- Analysis Limitations: Our system may miss nuances in legal language or misidentify beneficiaries.
- Incomplete Data: Not all bills have been analyzed yet.
- Verify Primary Sources: Always check original bill text and official records for accuracy.