# Congress.gov Bill Tracker - Bills, Votes, Sponsors & Subjects (`jungle_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker`) Actor Track U.S. Congress bills via the official Congress.gov API. Extracts bill details, sponsors, cosponsors with party/state breakdown, committee assignments, policy subjects, and latest actions. Filter by congress number, bill type, or updatedSince for incremental runs. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Business, Automation, News - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Congress.gov Bill Tracker Scrapes U.S. Congress bill data from the [official Congress.gov API](https://api.congress.gov/v3/). Returns bill details, sponsor and cosponsor records with party and state breakdown, committee assignments, policy subject tags, and latest legislative actions across all bill types and congresses. Runs against the real Congress.gov API — no HTML scraping, no proxies, no guesswork about when the site layout changes. --- ### Congress.gov Bill Tracker Features - **Extracts 20+ fields per bill** — title, congress number, bill type, introduced date, sponsor info, action history, and more - **Full cosponsor graph** — every cosponsor with name, party, state, and date. Formatted as readable strings so you don't have to reassemble them - **Policy subjects** — legislative subject tags from the Library of Congress subject system, useful for classification and filtering - **Committee assignments** — which committees each bill was referred to - **Incremental mode** — filter by `updatedSince` date to pull only bills updated since your last run - **Bill type filters** — target House bills, Senate bills, joint resolutions, concurrent resolutions, or simple resolutions independently - **Congress number filters** — pull a specific session or let it run across all historical congresses - **Direct text link** — URL to the HTML version of the bill text on congress.gov - **API-based** — uses the official Congress.gov JSON API (5,000 req/hr with a free key) --- ### Who Uses Congress.gov Data? - **Lobbying shops** — track bills in specific policy areas, monitor sponsor/cosponsor movement, flag bills that reach committee - **Policy research teams** — build structured datasets of legislative activity for analysis - **ESG and compliance analysts** — monitor proposed regulations by subject area and sponsor party - **Journalists and data reporters** — follow a bill from introduction to floor vote in structured JSON - **Political analytics startups** — feed historical and current bill data into models tracking legislative productivity --- ### How It Works 1. **Configure your run** — set the congress number (e.g., 119), bill type filter, and `maxItems`. Add your free Congress.gov API key if you have one. 2. **The scraper pages through the bill listing** — pulls bills in batches of 250, sorted by most-recently-updated. 3. **For each bill, it fetches the detail record** — sponsor info, cosponsor count, committee references, text version links. 4. **Optionally fetches cosponsors and policy subjects** — one extra API call each. Enabled by default, disable them if you need speed over depth. 5. **Returns structured JSON** — one record per bill, matching the output schema below. --- ### Congress.gov Bill Tracker Input ```json { "congress": 119, "billType": "hr", "maxItems": 100, "fetchCosponsors": true, "fetchSubjects": true, "updatedSince": "2025-01-01" } ```` | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | `apiKey` | String | — | Your free API key from [api.congress.gov/sign-up/](https://api.congress.gov/sign-up/). Without one, the DEMO\_KEY is used (30 req/hr — testing only). | | `congress` | Integer | 119 | Congress number to fetch bills from (119 = current, 118 = previous). Leave empty for all congresses. | | `billType` | String | All types | Bill type: `hr`, `s`, `hjres`, `sjres`, `hconres`, `sconres`, `hres`, `sres`. | | `updatedSince` | String | — | ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD). Fetch only bills updated after this date. Enables incremental runs. | | `fetchCosponsors` | Boolean | `true` | Fetch full cosponsor list for each bill. One extra API call per bill. | | `fetchSubjects` | Boolean | `true` | Fetch policy subject tags for each bill. One extra API call per bill. | | `maxItems` | Integer | 10 | Maximum number of bills to return. | *** ### Congress.gov Bill Tracker Output Fields ```json { "congress": 119, "billType": "HR", "billNumber": "1", "billId": "119-hr-1", "title": "Lower Energy Costs Act", "introducedDate": "2025-01-03", "originChamber": "House", "policyArea": "Energy", "sponsorBioguide": "S001176", "sponsorName": "Rep. Scalise, Steve [R-LA-1]", "sponsorParty": "R", "sponsorState": "LA", "cosponsorCount": 12, "cosponsors": [ "Rep. McMorris Rodgers, Cathy (R-WA, 2025-01-10)", "Rep. Westerman, Bruce (R-AR, 2025-01-10)" ], "committees": ["Energy and Commerce Committee"], "subjects": ["Energy policy", "Oil and gas", "Climate change"], "latestActionDate": "2025-03-30", "latestActionText": "Passed/agreed to in House.", "amendmentCount": 37, "relatedBillCount": 44, "textUrl": "https://www.congress.gov/119/bills/hr1/BILLS-119hr1eh.htm", "legislationUrl": "https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1", "apiUrl": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/119/hr/1?format=json", "updateDate": "2025-04-01T14:22:00Z" } ``` | Field | Type | Description | |-------|------|-------------| | `congress` | Integer | Congress number (e.g., 119 for 119th Congress, 2025-2027) | | `billType` | String | Bill type code: HR, S, HJRES, SJRES, HCONRES, SCONRES, HRES, SRES | | `billNumber` | String | Bill number within the congress | | `billId` | String | Unique identifier (congress-type-number, e.g., `119-hr-1`) | | `title` | String | Official full title of the bill | | `introducedDate` | String | Date the bill was introduced (YYYY-MM-DD) | | `originChamber` | String | Chamber of origin: House or Senate | | `policyArea` | String | Primary policy area classification | | `sponsorBioguide` | String | Bioguide ID of the primary sponsor | | `sponsorName` | String | Full name of the primary sponsor | | `sponsorParty` | String | Party of the primary sponsor (R, D, I) | | `sponsorState` | String | State code of the primary sponsor | | `cosponsorCount` | Integer | Total number of cosponsors | | `cosponsors` | Array | Cosponsors formatted as `"Name (Party-State, date)"` strings | | `committees` | Array | Committee names the bill was referred to | | `subjects` | Array | Legislative subject tags | | `latestActionDate` | String | Date of the most recent congressional action | | `latestActionText` | String | Description of the most recent action | | `amendmentCount` | Integer | Number of amendments filed | | `relatedBillCount` | Integer | Number of related bills | | `textUrl` | String | URL to the latest HTML version of the bill text | | `legislationUrl` | String | URL to the bill's congress.gov page | | `apiUrl` | String | Congress.gov API URL for the bill detail | | `updateDate` | String | When the bill record was last updated | *** ### 🔍 FAQ #### How do I scrape Congress.gov bill data? Congress.gov Bill Tracker handles everything — configure the congress number and bill type filters, then run it. Structured JSON with full bill details, sponsors, cosponsors, and policy subjects comes out the other end. #### Do I need an API key for Congress.gov? Congress.gov Bill Tracker uses a DEMO\_KEY by default, limited to 30 requests per hour. That's enough for testing with small `maxItems` values. For any real workload, get a free key from [api.congress.gov/sign-up/](https://api.congress.gov/sign-up/) — production keys allow 5,000 req/hr. #### How much does it cost to run? Congress.gov Bill Tracker charges $0.10 per run plus $0.001 per bill scraped. A run of 1,000 bills costs around $1.10. Each bill with cosponsors and subjects enabled requires 3-4 API calls total. #### Can I filter by congress number or bill type? Congress.gov Bill Tracker supports both. Set `congress: 119` for the current session, or leave it empty to pull across all historical congresses. Set `billType: "hr"` for House bills, `"s"` for Senate bills, or leave empty for all types. #### Does it support incremental scraping? Congress.gov Bill Tracker has an `updatedSince` field for exactly this. Set it to yesterday's date and run it on a schedule — you get only bills that changed since your last pull. Keeps a database current without re-pulling 12,000 bills every time. #### Does it need proxies? Congress.gov Bill Tracker uses the official Congress.gov API. No proxies needed. Government API, reasonable rate limits, public data. *** ### Need More Features? Need vote roll call data, full bill text extraction, or a different data source? [File an issue](https://console.apify.com/actors/issues) or get in touch. ### Why Use Congress.gov Bill Tracker? - **Official API** — pulls from Congress.gov's own JSON API, not scraped HTML that breaks when they change a CSS class - **Cosponsor graph included** — party and state breakdown per cosponsor, formatted and ready to use. The existing bill trackers on the store don't have this, which is why they have three users between them - **Incremental-ready** — `updatedSince` filter makes scheduled runs practical without re-fetching thousands of bills each time # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you. ## `apiKey` (type: `string`): Your free API key from api.congress.gov/sign-up/. Without a key, the DEMO\_KEY is used (30 req/hour limit — only suitable for testing). Production keys allow 5,000 req/hour. ## `congress` (type: `integer`): Congress number to fetch bills from (e.g., 119 for current, 118 for previous). Leave empty to fetch across all congresses. ## `billType` (type: `string`): Type of bill to fetch. HR = House Bill, S = Senate Bill, HJRES = House Joint Resolution, SJRES = Senate Joint Resolution, HCONRES = House Concurrent Resolution, SCONRES = Senate Concurrent Resolution, HRES = House Simple Resolution, SRES = Senate Simple Resolution. Leave empty for all types. ## `updatedSince` (type: `string`): ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) to fetch only bills updated after this date. Enables incremental scraping — ideal for scheduled runs. Leave empty for full crawl. ## `fetchCosponsors` (type: `boolean`): Fetch full cosponsor list (name, party, state, date) for each bill. Requires one extra API call per bill. ## `fetchSubjects` (type: `boolean`): Fetch legislative subject tags for each bill. Requires one extra API call per bill. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of bills to return. Set to 0 for no limit. ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "congress": 119, "fetchCosponsors": true, "fetchSubjects": true, "maxItems": 10 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "apiKey": "", "congress": 119, "billType": "", "updatedSince": "", "fetchCosponsors": true, "fetchSubjects": true, "maxItems": 10 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "apiKey": "", "congress": 119, "billType": "", "updatedSince": "", "fetchCosponsors": True, "fetchSubjects": True, "maxItems": 10, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "apiKey": "", "congress": 119, "billType": "", "updatedSince": "", "fetchCosponsors": true, "fetchSubjects": true, "maxItems": 10 }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/congress-gov-bill-tracker", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Congress.gov Bill Tracker - Bills, Votes, Sponsors & Subjects", "description": "Track U.S. Congress bills via the official Congress.gov API. Extracts bill details, sponsors, cosponsors with party/state breakdown, committee assignments, policy subjects, and latest actions. Filter by congress number, bill type, or updatedSince for incremental runs.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "2NJMY9co5gcbUgtGN" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~congress-gov-bill-tracker/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-congress-gov-bill-tracker", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~congress-gov-bill-tracker/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-congress-gov-bill-tracker", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~congress-gov-bill-tracker/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-congress-gov-bill-tracker", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Please describe how you plan to use the data extracted by this crawler." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact Email", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide your email address so we can get in touch with you." }, "apiKey": { "title": "Congress.gov API Key", "type": "string", "description": "Your free API key from api.congress.gov/sign-up/. Without a key, the DEMO_KEY is used (30 req/hour limit — only suitable for testing). Production keys allow 5,000 req/hour." }, "congress": { "title": "Congress Number", "type": "integer", "description": "Congress number to fetch bills from (e.g., 119 for current, 118 for previous). Leave empty to fetch across all congresses." }, "billType": { "title": "Bill Type", "enum": [ "", "hr", "s", "hjres", "sjres", "hconres", "sconres", "hres", "sres" ], "type": "string", "description": "Type of bill to fetch. HR = House Bill, S = Senate Bill, HJRES = House Joint Resolution, SJRES = Senate Joint Resolution, HCONRES = House Concurrent Resolution, SCONRES = Senate Concurrent Resolution, HRES = House Simple Resolution, SRES = Senate Simple Resolution. Leave empty for all types." }, "updatedSince": { "title": "Updated Since (Incremental Mode)", "type": "string", "description": "ISO date (YYYY-MM-DD) to fetch only bills updated after this date. Enables incremental scraping — ideal for scheduled runs. Leave empty for full crawl." }, "fetchCosponsors": { "title": "Fetch Cosponsors", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch full cosponsor list (name, party, state, date) for each bill. Requires one extra API call per bill.", "default": true }, "fetchSubjects": { "title": "Fetch Policy Subjects", "type": "boolean", "description": "Fetch legislative subject tags for each bill. Requires one extra API call per bill.", "default": true }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 50000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of bills to return. Set to 0 for no limit.", "default": 10 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```