Institutional

Cookie Policy

Everything this site stores in your browser, item by item, what each item is for, and how to change your answer.

Adopted 4 Feb 2025 · revised 28 Jul 2026 · 3 revisions

1 The short version

This site stores a small number of items in your browser, all listed below. Most are first-party preferences that never reach us. The exception is Google Analytics, which sets its own cookies and is named in the list. There are no advertising cookies, and nothing here is used to build an advertising profile of you.

2 What we store, item by item

theme

Your light, dark or system choice, if you set one in the footer. Stored in local storage on your device until you change it. Strictly a preference; never sent to us.

footer bar

Whether you dismissed the newsletter footer bar. Stored on your device for 180 days so the bar does not return on every page.

consent

Your answer to the consent question, so it is asked once and remembered.

zip pin

A ZIP code, only if you enter one on a vote page to pin your own members of Congress. Stored on your device. Never sent to us.

saved

Articles you save for later. Stored on your device. Never sent to us.

Google Analytics

Cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by a code, set by Google Analytics so we can count visits and see which articles are read. They record the pages you open on this site, an approximate location derived from your IP address, and the browser you use. They expire after two years, or sooner if you clear your browser. We do not use them for advertising and we have not enabled Google's advertising features.

Server request logs, which every website keeps, are described in the Privacy Policy.

3 The consent mechanism

Storage that is strictly necessary to show the page needs no consent and none is asked. Anything beyond that is asked about once, in a dismissible banner that never blocks an article, and your answer is remembered.

You can change your answer at any time. The footer of every page links this Cookie Policy and Your Privacy Choices; either page lets you reopen the consent question and give a different answer. Declining leaves the site fully readable, with only the strictly necessary items above.

4 Third parties

Pages on this site load no third-party scripts, fonts or trackers; our security policy blocks them. Where an article quotes material from another platform, we render it as labelled text with a link rather than embedding that platform's player, so reading an article here does not expose you to another company's cookies.

5 Browser controls

Your browser can clear or block any of the items above; the site keeps working, though it will forget your preferences. Instructions live in your browser's own settings under storage or site data.