Congress.gov Scraper

Extract US legislative data from Congress.gov — the official source for bills, members, and committees maintained by the Library of Congress. This actor replaces GovTrack (API discontinued summer 2026) and uses the free official Congress.gov API.

What You Get

• Bills — title, sponsor, party, state, policy area, subjects, latest action, introduced date, cosponsor count, and direct bill URL
• Members — bioguide ID, name, party, state, district, chamber, legislation counts, and photo URL
• Committees — name, chamber, type, subcommittee count, and Congress.gov URL
• Bill details — full structured data for any specific bill by congress number, type, and bill number

Data Source

All data is sourced from the official Congress.gov API (api.congress.gov) maintained by the Library of Congress. The API is free to use without registration (30 requests/hour with the default DEMO_KEY). Register at api.congress.gov for 5,000 requests/hour.

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Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	Select	What to fetch: searchBills, billDetails, members, committees
apiKey	Text	Congress.gov API key. Defaults to DEMO_KEY (30 req/hr). Register for 5000 req/hr.
congress	Integer	Congress number (100–119). Current is 119 (2025–2026).
billType	Select	Filter by bill type: HR, S, HJRES, SJRES, HCONRES, SCONRES, HRES, SRES
billNumber	Integer	Bill number for billDetails mode
query	Text	Keyword to filter bill titles in searchBills mode
fromDate	Text	Filter bills updated on/after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
toDate	Text	Filter bills updated on/before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
chamber	Select	Filter by chamber: house, senate, or both
state	Text	Filter members by 2-letter US state code (e.g., CA, TX)
party	Select	Filter members by party: D (Democrat), R (Republican), I (Independent)
currentMember	Boolean	When true, return only currently serving members
maxItems	Integer	Maximum records to return (1–500, default 20)

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Modes

searchBills — Search and list recent bills

Returns a paginated list of bills from Congress.gov, sorted by most recently updated.

{
  "mode": "searchBills",
  "congress": 119,
  "billType": "HR",
  "maxItems": 20
}

billDetails — Get full details for a specific bill

Returns complete metadata for one bill including sponsor, subjects, action history counts.

{
  "mode": "billDetails",
  "congress": 119,
  "billType": "HR",
  "billNumber": 1
}

members — List congressional members

Returns members with party, state, district, and legislation activity counts.

{
  "mode": "members",
  "chamber": "senate",
  "party": "D",
  "currentMember": true,
  "maxItems": 50
}

committees — List committees

Returns standing, select, and joint committees with chamber and type.

{
  "mode": "committees",
  "chamber": "house",
  "maxItems": 30
}

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Output Fields

Bills

Field	Description
congress	Congress number (e.g., 119)
billType	Bill type (HR, S, HJRES, etc.)
billNumber	Bill number
title	Full bill title
originChamber	House or Senate
introducedDate	Date introduced (YYYY-MM-DD)
sponsor	Sponsor's full name
sponsorParty	Sponsor's party (D/R/I)
sponsorState	Sponsor's state abbreviation
policyArea	Primary policy area
latestAction	Most recent action text
latestActionDate	Date of most recent action
cosponsorCount	Number of cosponsors
actionCount	Total action count
subjects	List of legislative subjects
billUrl	Direct Congress.gov bill URL
updateDate	Last update timestamp

Members

Field	Description
bioguideId	Unique member identifier
name	Full name
partyName	Full party name
state	State abbreviation
district	Congressional district number
chambers	List of chambers served
mostRecentChamber	Current/most recent chamber
termStartYear	Most recent term start year
sponsoredLegislationCount	Bills sponsored count
cosponsoredLegislationCount	Bills cosponsored count
imageUrl	Official photo URL
memberUrl	Congress.gov member page URL

Committees

Field	Description
committeeId	System code identifier
name	Full committee name
chamber	House or Senate
committeeType	Standing, Select, Joint, etc.
subcommitteeCount	Number of subcommittees
committeeUrl	Congress.gov committee URL

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Example Output Record (Bill)

{
  "congress": 119,
  "billType": "HR",
  "billNumber": 1,
  "title": "American Innovation and Jobs Act",
  "originChamber": "House",
  "introducedDate": "2025-01-06",
  "sponsor": "Charles Schumer",
  "sponsorParty": "D",
  "sponsorState": "NY",
  "policyArea": "Science, Technology, Communications",
  "latestAction": "Referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.",
  "latestActionDate": "2025-01-10",
  "cosponsorCount": 12,
  "actionCount": 5,
  "subjects": ["Research and Development", "Tax Credits"],
  "billUrl": "https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/hr/1",
  "recordType": "bill",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-05-25T10:30:00+00:00"
}

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Use Cases

• Legislative research — Track bills by topic, sponsor, or status across Congress sessions
• Civic tech — Build apps that show what your representatives have been working on
• Journalism — Monitor bill activity, cosponsor patterns, and committee assignments
• Policy analysis — Study legislative trends across multiple Congress sessions
• Academic research — Analyze voting patterns, party alignment, and policy areas
• Compliance & lobbying — Monitor relevant legislation in your industry

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Rate Limits

The default DEMO_KEY is rate-limited to 30 requests per hour. For large-scale data collection:

1. Register a free API key at api.congress.gov
2. Enter your key in the apiKey field
3. Enjoy 5,000 requests per hour

The actor automatically adds delays between requests when using DEMO_KEY to stay within limits.

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FAQ

Q: How current is the data? Congress.gov is the official US government source — data is updated within hours of official actions.

Q: What Congress numbers are available? Historical data goes back many congresses. The current is 119 (2025–2026); 118 was 2023–2024.

Q: What are the bill type codes?

• HR — House Resolution (a bill originating in the House)
• S — Senate Bill
• HJRES — House Joint Resolution
• SJRES — Senate Joint Resolution
• HCONRES / SCONRES — Concurrent Resolutions
• HRES / SRES — Simple Resolutions

Q: Can I search for bills by keyword? Yes — use the query field with mode=searchBills to filter results by title keyword.

Q: Is a paid API key required? No. The DEMO_KEY works out of the box with lower rate limits. Register at api.congress.gov for higher limits.