Platform Comparison
FFID vs Congress.gov
Congress.gov has the source documents. FFID makes them searchable.
Browse Member Funding HistoriesOverview
Congress.gov is the official source for legislation, bill text, and appropriations records. CPF and CDS earmarks are technically in those documents — buried across hundreds of pages of appropriations bill text. FFID extracts, normalizes, and structures every earmark into a searchable database updated weekly.
When to use each
Use Congress.gov for official legislative records, bill text, and voting history. Use FFID to search, filter, export, and analyze CPF/CDS project-level earmark data without manual PDF parsing.
Key differences
| Dimension | Congress.gov | FFID |
|---|---|---|
| Earmark accessibility | Buried in multi-hundred-page appropriations bill PDFs — no structured search | Every project extracted, normalized, and searchable by recipient, state, member, agency, amount |
| Cross-year comparison | Manual — each fiscal year is a separate document | FY2022–FY2026 in a single searchable dataset, cross-year by member or recipient |
| Member sponsorship history | Requires manual extraction from each year's bill | Full member funding history — total dollars, project count, agency breakdown, enacted rate |
| Export | None — documents only | CSV export of up to 5,000 rows for BD pipelines, reports, and CRM loading |
Who FFID is for in this comparison
Researchers, lobbyists, and grant consultants who need structured earmark data without PDF parsing.
See FFID in action
Search free as an anonymous user, or start a 7-day trial for full access — all statuses, CSV export, saved searches, and pipeline tags.