See what Congress is actually doing
Only Issues shows you live federal bills in their own words, then lets you vote support or oppose. Vote on the bills, not the party.
Most political media is about people and teams — who's winning, who's to blame. Only Issues is about the actual legislation moving through Congress: what a bill would do, in its own language and in the neutral summary written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). You read it, then you weigh in.
Our policies
These are the rules we hold ourselves to. They're the reason the product exists.
Verbatim, always attributed
We show bill titles, CRS summaries, and CRS tags exactly as sourced from Congress.gov. We never summarize, soften, or rewrite them in our own words. If the source is dry or one-sided, you see it as-is and we attribute it to Congress.
Bills, not candidates
We never map positions to politicians or parties, and there's no red/blue framing anywhere. The focus is the issue in front of Congress.
Sponsors hidden until you vote
Who sponsored a bill is revealed only after you've voted — so your read of the bill isn't colored by whose name is on it.
No results before you vote
You never see the tally before casting your own vote. That prevents anchoring — being nudged toward the crowd instead of deciding for yourself.
Honest about limits
Our results reflect self-selected, phone-verified users of Only Issues — real people, one vote each. They are not a scientific poll of the public, and we always say so.
Neutral, published selection
What appears in the feed is decided by a transparent rule, not our opinion of what's important: bills reported out of committee or scheduled for a floor vote and not yet decided (widened, in quiet stretches, to include bills with strong cosponsor momentum).
State filter uses facts, not opinions
If you set your state on your profile, the "my state" filter shows a bill only when that state is objectively tied to it: the state's name appears in the bill's own text or summary, or the bill is sponsored or cosponsored by a member from that state. We never decide for ourselves that a bill "impacts" a state — the connection is always factual, and we don't label why a bill appears.
Your data is protected by design
We collect as little as possible, and the sensitive part — your phone number — is never stored next to your vote.
- Browsing and reading require no account and no personal information.
- When you verify, your phone number is used only to confirm you're one real person, through Google's Firebase Authentication. It is never stored alongside your vote, never sold, and never used to contact you.
- Your vote record is tied to an anonymous account ID, not to your phone number — the two are kept separate.
- Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.
Full details are in our privacy policy.
Why we ask you to verify
For a vote count to mean anything, it has to be one real human, one vote. Phone verification is how we keep out bots and duplicate accounts, so the verified number is one we'd be willing to defend publicly — and, eventually, bring to the people writing the laws.
Verifying is optional. You can vote and stay a participant, or verify to make your vote count in the official tally. Either way you can read everything.
How verification works
- Read the bill — no login needed.
- Vote support or oppose. Your vote is recorded right away.
- Make it count — enter your mobile number once and confirm the code we text you (one tap, no password). This locks your vote into the verified tally.
- See the payoff — the verified crowd's split and the bill's sponsors are revealed. You can also skip verification and still see results.
New to how legislation moves? See how a bill becomes a law — it also explains the progress gauge on each card.
Who runs Only Issues
Only Issues is operated by Lean Towards Joy. Questions, corrections, or concerns: michael@leantowardsjoy.com.