US Congress Bill Scraper - Status, Sponsors & Dates

Scrape US Congress legislation in bulk. Extract bill number, title, type, chamber, introduction date, current status, sponsor name, party, state and district, plus related-bill counts to CSV/JSON. No API key, no login.

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What does the GovTrack Scraper do?

This Actor turns GovTrack data into a structured dataset. You point it at one Congress or laws matching a topic, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per bill into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

GovTrack publishes a keyless REST API over every bill introduced in the US Congress since 1973 — more than 430,000 of them. The Actor reads it directly and flattens the nested sponsor and role objects, so party, state and district arrive as ordinary columns instead of something you have to dig out of a JSON tree. Pagination is followed automatically until it runs out of results, hits your page limit or hits your Max items cap, whichever comes first. Every row is de-duplicated across the whole run, so you are never billed twice for the same bill.

There is no API key, no login and no browser involved. That keeps runs fast and cheap, and it means you can schedule the Actor without worrying about credentials expiring.

Who is it for?

• Public-affairs and lobbying teams tracking legislation on an issue.
• Journalists researching what a member of Congress has sponsored.
• Compliance and policy analysts monitoring bills that affect a sector.
• Academics studying legislative behaviour quantitatively.
• Developers building civic-tech tools over public legislative data.

Use cases

• Export every bill from a Congress and group them by status.
• Track which members sponsor the most legislation and on what.
• Monitor newly introduced bills on a schedule.
• Compare how far bills get by party, chamber or state.
• Build a legislative dataset for analysis or a policy dashboard.

Why use this GovTrack Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 30 fields per bill — everything the source exposes, already typed.
• 📄 Real pagination — it walks page after page instead of returning the first screen.
• 🎯 Precise caps — Max items stops the run exactly where you want it, so the bill is predictable.
• 📊 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations.
• 💸 Pay per result — you pay for rows you actually receive, with no platform fees to calculate.

What data can you extract?

Every run produces one row per bill, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
billId	string	Stable identifier built from congress, type and number
displayNumber	string	Human-readable bill number, e.g. H.R. 10488
title	string	Full bill title as published
titleWithoutNumber	string	Title with the bill number removed
billType	string	Bill type code, e.g. house_bill or senate_resolution
billTypeLabel	string	Readable bill type label
congress	number	Congress number the bill belongs to
number	number	Bill number within its type
billUrl	string	GovTrack page for the bill
introducedDate	string	Date the bill was introduced
currentStatus	string	Current status code
currentStatusLabel	string	Readable current status
currentStatusDate	string	Date the current status was reached
currentStatusDescription	string	Plain-English explanation of the status
currentChamber	string	Chamber currently holding the bill
isAlive	boolean	Whether the bill can still advance
isCurrent	boolean	Whether it belongs to the sitting Congress
sponsorName	string	Sponsoring member as published
sponsorBioguideId	string	Bioguide identifier of the sponsor
sponsorUrl	string	GovTrack page for the sponsor
sponsorParty	string	Sponsor's party
sponsorState	string	Sponsor's state
sponsorDistrict	number	Sponsor's district, for representatives
sponsorRole	string	Sponsor's role, e.g. Representative or Senator
titleCount	number	Number of alternative titles recorded
relatedBillCount	number	Number of related bills linked
majorActionCount	number	Number of major legislative actions recorded
slipLawNumber	string	Slip law number when the bill became law
page	number	Result page the bill appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "billId": "119-house_bill-10426",
  "displayNumber": "H.R. 10426",
  "title": "H.R. 10426: To improve the processing of samples of sexual assault evidence, and for other purposes.",
  "titleWithoutNumber": "To improve the processing of samples of sexual assault evidence, and for other purposes.",
  "billType": "house_bill",
  "billTypeLabel": "H.R.",
  "congress": 119,
  "number": 10426,
  "billUrl": "https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr10426",
  "introducedDate": "2026-09-16",
  "currentStatus": "introduced",
  "currentStatusLabel": "Introduced",
  "currentStatusDate": "2026-09-16",
  "currentStatusDescription": "This bill is in the first stage of the legislative process. It was introduced into Congress on September 16, 2026. It will typically be considered by committee next\u2026",
  "currentChamber": "house",
  "isAlive": true,
  "isCurrent": true,
  "sponsorName": "Rep. Emanuel Cleaver [D-MO5]",
  "sponsorBioguideId": "C001061",
  "sponsorUrl": "https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/emanuel_cleaver/400639",
  "sponsorParty": "Democrat",
  "sponsorState": "MO",
  "sponsorDistrict": 5,
  "sponsorRole": "Representative",
  "titleCount": 2,
  "relatedBillCount": 0,
  "majorActionCount": 0,
  "slipLawNumber": null,
  "page": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-20T12:41:55.203Z"
}

How to use

Option A — one Congress

{
  "congressNumber": 119,
  "currentStatus": "any",
  "maxItems": 2000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 20,
  "searchQuery": "",
  "sortOrder": "newest"
}

1. Open the Actor and fill in the first field.
2. Set the page limit and Max items to bound the run.
3. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Option B — laws matching a topic

{
  "currentStatus": "enacted_signed",
  "maxItems": 2000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 20,
  "searchQuery": "climate",
  "sortOrder": "newest"
}

Everything in the first field is processed independently, so you can batch several targets into one run and split them apart afterwards.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	–	Restrict to bills whose text matches this term, using GovTrack's own search.
congressNumber	integer	0	Restrict to one two-year Congress, e.
currentStatus	string	any	Restrict to bills at a particular stage.
sortOrder	string	newest	Walk the archive newest-first or oldest-first.
maxPagesPerSearch	integer	5	How many result pages to walk for each search.
maxItems	integer	500	Stop after this many bills.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• Leave the search term empty to walk the whole archive, newest first.
• Congress number narrows the run to one two-year session — 119 is the current one.
• Status filters to a stage the API actually recognises — introduced, reported, passed the House, or enacted. enacted_signed is the one that fills slipLawNumber.
• The API returns up to 100 bills per request, so exports need few calls.
• isAlive false means the bill died with its Congress; most bills do.
• sponsorParty and sponsorState come from the sponsor's role record, so they reflect the role held at the time.
• currentStatusDescription is written for humans and is the quickest way to read a result set.
• slipLawNumber is filled only for the small share of bills that became law.
• Sort order is newest-first by default; switch it to walk history forwards.
• Schedule a daily run to track newly introduced legislation.
• GovTrack defines a source-link field but leaves it empty on every bill sampled across three eras, so it is not included.

Integrations

Send results straight into the tools you already use: Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airtable or any Webhook. You can also schedule the Actor to run hourly, daily or weekly and have each run append to the same dataset, which is how you build a price or availability history rather than a one-off snapshot.

API usage

Run the Actor and collect results from any language. Replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~govtrack-congress-bill-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"congressNumber": 119, "currentStatus": "any", "maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchQuery": "", "sortOrder": "newest"}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/govtrack-congress-bill-scraper').call({"congressNumber": 119, "currentStatus": "any", "maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchQuery": "", "sortOrder": "newest"});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<YOUR_TOKEN>')
run = client.actor('logiover/govtrack-congress-bill-scraper').call(run_input={"congressNumber": 119, "currentStatus": "any", "maxItems": 2000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchQuery": "", "sortOrder": "newest"})
for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available through the Apify MCP server, so an AI agent can call it as a tool. Point your agent at https://mcp.apify.com and it can run the GovTrack Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 bills from GovTrack and summarise what you find." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a GovTrack account or API key?

No. The Actor reads publicly available data only. There is nothing to authenticate and no credentials to rotate.

How many bills can I get in one run?

As many as the source exposes. Raise the page limit and Max items together; the run stops at whichever limit it reaches first.

Why did I get fewer rows than I asked for?

The source ran out of bills. That is normal for narrow searches — broaden the query or add more targets to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each bill is emitted once per run, even when it appears on several pages, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

Why are some fields empty?

GovTrack does not publish every attribute for every bill. Empty means the source did not supply it, not that extraction failed.

What export formats are supported?

JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and RSS from the Output tab, plus the Apify API and any integration you connect.

How fast is it?

It is pure HTTP with no browser, so a page of results typically takes a second or two. Raise Max concurrency carefully — the source rate-limits aggressive crawling.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Use the Apify scheduler to run it on any interval and append each run to the same dataset for time-series analysis.

Does it work behind a proxy?

It uses Apify Proxy automatically. You can switch groups or supply your own proxies in Proxy configuration.

How often does the data change?

GovTrack updates continuously. Re-run whenever you need current data; the Actor always reads the live source, never a cache.

Is the output schema stable?

Yes. Field names and types are fixed, so downstream pipelines will not break between runs.

What if the source changes its format?

Open an issue on the Issues tab and it gets fixed. The Actor is actively maintained.

Is it legal?

This Actor reads only publicly available data from GovTrack — the same content any visitor or client sees without logging in. It does not bypass authentication, does not collect private data and does not attempt to defeat access controls. You are responsible for how you use the output: respect the source's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection law such as GDPR where personal data is involved. Scraping public data is generally lawful in the EU and the US, but the responsibility for the downstream use of that data sits with you.

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