Method

This site is a record of what the Mandate asked for, what has already happened, and what is still to come. The record is neutral: every status is backed by a linked source, and we never assign one without it. The point of view is not neutral. We think what has already been carried out is the best evidence that the rest is meant seriously, and the site is built to show that.

What counts as a recommendation

A recommendation is a single, checkable ask made by the Mandate: a concrete action (rescind, abolish, create, reinstate, transfer, appoint, repeal, withdraw, issue) on a named object (an order, statute, office, program, treaty, rule). Principles without a mechanism are not included. Every recommendation carries the document's own words, verbatim, with the printed page number. When the same ask appears in more than one chapter, it is one recommendation with several citations.

Tiers

Every recommendation has a significance tier, fixed when it was extracted and never changed by what later happened. Major would change the structure of government or national policy in a way a general reader would recognize. Notable is a specific, publicly traceable change to a named rule, program, office, order, or enforcement policy. Minor covers internal staffing, management practice, advisory posture, and asks that Congress merely "consider".

Status

A recommendation's status is the latest dated event in its history.

Status	Meaning
Done	The action was taken and is in effect.
Partially done	Part of the action was taken, or a narrower version of it.
Attempted	The action was formally initiated (proposed rule, bill introduced, order signed) but is not in effect.
Blocked	Action was taken but is currently prevented from taking effect, typically by a court.
Reversed	The action was achieved and later undone.
Unverified	A status was claimed without evidence; not counted as anything else until sourced.
Not started	No action found. The starting point for every recommendation.

There is no score

This site does not reduce the Mandate to a percentage. A roll-up is a count of recommendations by status — "12 done · 3 blocked · 40 not started" — for a chapter, a section, or the whole document. It is always computed from the record, never hand-authored, and never collapsed into a single number. A percentage would grade the administration against the Mandate's own checklist; that is not what we are doing here. The reasoning is recorded in docs/adr/0001-no-score.md.

Still to come

The Still to come list is every recommendation that is not started or blocked, ordered by how big it is and how easily it could happen. It is derived entirely from the record. Each recommendation is sorted by feasibility: executive action if nothing in the Mandate's own text says it needs Congress; needs Congress if it does; blocked in court if it was tried and a court stopped it. A blocked recommendation appears in both the record of what happened and the list of what is still to come — it is proof of intent and a live candidate for another attempt.

We do not predict. Nothing on this site says what will happen next or when, and nothing in the list is hand-picked. The ordering is a sort, not a forecast.

Evidence

No status other than "not started" is assigned without at least one dated, linked source. Primary evidence is the official record: executive orders, the Federal Register, court dockets, agency releases, enacted law. Secondary evidence is reporting from wire services and major newspapers, and is shown as such. Sources must come from a fixed allowlist; anything else is noted as a lead, not evidence. Each source records who acted: executive, Congress, the judiciary, a state, or another actor.

Contested chapters

Two chapters — the Export–Import Bank and Trade — print opposing essays side by side. Recommendations from those chapters record which essay they belong to. Because the Mandate does not speak with one voice there, we do not treat either essay as its ask: contested recommendations are excluded from every roll-up and from Still to come, and are shown on their chapter page under both positions.

Source

Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, The Heritage Foundation, 2023. 920 pages, 30 chapters. Page numbers on this site are the printed page numbers in the book.