THE RECEIPTS / CLASSROOM EDITION
Good questions.
Checkable sources.
The lab separates constitutional rules, classroom models, and current information. Its scenarios are invented for learning. They are not predictions, polling, or advice about which political position to take.
Start with the original record.
- National Archives: U.S. Constitution — Article I covers Congress, qualifications, voting, lawmaking, and powers. Read the linked amendments alongside the original text.
- U.S. Senate: filibusters and cloture — The distinction between ending debate and passing legislation. For most legislation, cloture requires three-fifths of senators duly chosen and sworn; special procedures and nominations may differ.
- Congress.gov: legislation and the congressional record — Check a bill’s Congress, number, title, actions, text, and enactment status. A headline about passage in one chamber does not establish that it became law.
- House: Find Your Representative — Official lookup for current representation. A ZIP can overlap districts. Current representation and districts used for an upcoming election may differ.
- Senate: senators directory — Official current membership and contact links.
- U.S. Treasury: America’s Finance Guide and Debt to the Penny — Official spending, revenue, deficit, and debt data. The lab does not fetch a live debt feed.
- Federal Election Commission: PACs — Campaign finance committees are distinct from lobbying. Consult the FEC for rules and current limits.
- Senate: Lobbying Disclosure Act — Registration and disclosure framework for lobbying.
- California Secretary of State: elections — Use official election information for current maps, deadlines, eligibility, and registration. This classroom site does not determine anyone’s voting eligibility.
How the simulations simplify reality
| Activity | What is modeled | What to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Bill game | Committee choices, bicameral agreement, cloture, and vetoes. | Every policy, vote shift, and coalition is fictional. Members do not have predictable vote bonuses. Ordinary final passage and cloture are different votes. An override requires two-thirds in each chamber; 290/67 assumes all 435/100 vote. |
| Budget | Five spending categories and 100 revenue credits. | These are not real federal shares. The model omits interest, mandatory spending rules, revenue policy, and economic effects. A deficit is a period’s spending above revenue; debt is outstanding borrowing. No spending preference is graded as correct. |
| Districts | Five equally sized groups of ten voters; 20 A, 30 B in every scenario. | Rows represent groupings, not actual geography. No contiguity, compactness, community, or voting-rights test is performed. Proportional seats alone do not prove fairness. The model demonstrates effects of packing and cracking. |
| Source detective | A fictional social post and a verification checklist. | Likes and screenshots are invented. The checklist teaches verification but does not automatically fact-check a chosen bill. |
| Practice | Eight questions with explanations and missed-question review. | Completion is an activity record, not an assessment of full-course mastery. Students may retry freely. |
Notes, privacy, and classroom use
The hub has no student accounts, class roster, advertising, analytics scripts, or answer-submission service. Notes and completion flags are stored in this browser’s local storage. Anyone using the same browser profile may see those notes. Clear saved work on shared devices after saving a copy. If storage is blocked, the activities remain usable in the current tab; download or print to keep work. Simulation steps and unfinished quiz rounds restart when reopened.
Google Fonts is requested to load the site’s typefaces; system fonts are the fallback. The study guide includes a YouTube video using the privacy-enhanced embed domain. External links open third-party websites with their own policies. The Netlify host may keep ordinary request logs. The lab does not submit written answers to those services.
Editorial maintenance
Revision date: September 12, 2026. The preview replaces the previous simulated live debt display and hard-coded bill-status cards with clearly labeled models and official source links. It corrects selected procedural claims, including conference committees, cloture, veto timing, representation lookup, and the difference between impeachment and removal. The older live lesson is preserved in Git history.
Before adding current bills, representatives, dollar amounts, or election dates, verify them against the official record and include the date checked. Do not label calculated counters or old snapshots “live.” Future classroom possibilities include a mock Supreme Court hearing, a local-government problem-solving project, and a teacher-curated weekly bill investigation.