Independent public-interest research
Search federal spending, government institutions, organization relationships, lobbying records, and political money—then follow each claim back to its public source.
Search covers organizations, people, awards, agencies, PACs, politicians, congressional committees, and glossary terms.
123
Organization profiles
116
Federal agencies
210
Award records
1,000
PAC profiles
Live record counts from the public database. Coverage varies by collection and is not a complete count of federal activity.
September 22, 2026
Boeing Defense and RTX alone recorded more than $50 billion in federal obligations across their latest tracked 12-month periods. Paper Trail compared federal spending connected to five major U.S. defense contractors.
Read finding →September 21, 2026
Federal agencies obligated about $64 billion to Lockheed Martin between August 19, 2025 and August 18, 2026. More than 97% came from the Department of Defense, funding programs ranging from fighter aircraft and missile systems to satellites and sustainment.
Read finding →Start here
See what funds the federal government, who pays federal taxes, and where obligations go through agencies, awards, and recipients.
Understand companies and institutions connected to federal money, corporate relationships, lobbying, and political committees.
Follow organization-linked PACs and see which candidates and political committees received their money.
See which departments and offices direct public money, what they fund, and which recipients receive it.
Read major contract and award records in plain language, with links back to the original federal source.
Browse leading records across organizations, agencies, awards, and campaign finance from one starting point.
Start with a geopolitical issue and trace the connected money, organizations, people, policy, and human consequences.
Learn the language used in public spending, contracting, campaign finance, and institutional research.
Follow organization-affiliated PAC money into candidate committees, congressional roles, and official legislation records.
See who serves on congressional committees and which tracked PACs contributed to current members.
Reader discovery
Public records receiving the most visits on Paper Trail. Counts are aggregate and do not store visitor identities.
Follow the trail
These examples use connected records already in the database. Each destination includes the underlying source or record context.
Organization → affiliated PAC
Move from an organization-linked committee to the candidates and political committees receiving its money.
Open trail →
Primary data: Federal Election Commission
Agency → award → recipient
Department of Defense awarded this record to HUMANA GOVERNMENT BUSINESS INC.
Open trail →
Primary data: USAspending.gov
Agency → recipients
Follow an agency’s obligations into award types, subagencies, recipients, categories, and locations.
Open trail →
Primary data: USAspending.gov
Featured research
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is a major defense and aerospace company and one of the federal government's largest contractors.
Federal data refreshed Sep 22, 2026
RTX Corporation
RTX Corporation is a major defense and aerospace contractor with extensive federal contracts across aviation, missile systems, and electronics.
Federal data refreshed Sep 22, 2026
Boeing Defense
The Boeing Company is a major aerospace and defense contractor that supplies aircraft, satellites, and other systems to the federal government.
Federal data refreshed Sep 22, 2026
Palantir Technologies
A software company specializing in data integration and analytics for defense, intelligence, and civilian government agencies.
Federal data refreshed Sep 22, 2026
UnitedHealth Group
One of the nation's largest health insurance and healthcare services companies receiving substantial federal healthcare payments.
Federal data refreshed Sep 22, 2026
Independent by design
Paper Trail isn't owned by a political party, contractor, media company, or data vendor. It is independently researched, built, and maintained, and its underlying research remains free to access.
Current public scale: 123 organization profiles, 116 agencies, 210 awards, and 1000 PAC profiles.