# Congress Bill Tracker (`m_ctim/congress-bill-tracker`) Actor

Track new and recently updated U.S. federal bills by keyword, sponsor state, congress, or status via the public GovTrack.us API: bill number, title, sponsor, chamber, and current legislative status. For policy, government-affairs, and lobbying teams.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/m\_ctim/congress-bill-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Timothy Kelvin](https://apify.com/m_ctim) (community)
- **Categories:** News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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 Bill Tracker

Track new and recently introduced U.S. federal bills by keyword,
status, or Congress number, via the public [GovTrack.us
API](https://www.govtrack.us/api/v2/bill): bill number, title,
sponsor, chamber, and current legislative status.

Built for policy, government-affairs, and lobbying teams who need to
catch new bills touching a topic without checking congress.gov by
hand.

### Input

```json
{
  "keyword": "climate",
  "currentStatus": "",
  "congress": null,
  "daysBack": 7,
  "maxResults": 25
}
```

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `keyword` | string (optional) | Free-text search against bill titles, e.g. `"climate"` or `"broadband"`. Leave blank for all recently introduced bills. |
| `currentStatus` | string (optional) | Filter to one exact legislative status, e.g. `"introduced"`, `"reported"`, `"passed_bill"`, `"enacted_signed"`, `"vetoed_pocket"`. See the input schema description for the full valid list — GovTrack rejects unrecognized values with a clear error. |
| `congress` | number (optional) | Limit to one numbered Congress, e.g. `119` for the current 2025-2027 Congress. |
| `daysBack` | number | Only return bills introduced within this many days. Default `7`, max `365`. |
| `maxResults` | number | Max bills to return. Default `25`, max `100`. |

### Output

One record per matching bill:

```json
{
  "billNumber": "H.R. 10095",
  "title": "To amend the Foreign Service Act of 1980 to provide per diem eligibility for required leave of members of the Foreign Service.",
  "congress": 119,
  "chamber": "house",
  "status": "Introduced",
  "statusDate": "2026-08-13",
  "introducedDate": "2026-08-13",
  "isAlive": true,
  "sponsorName": "Rep. William R. Keating [D-MA9]",
  "sponsorParty": "Democrat",
  "sponsorState": "MA",
  "link": "https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/119/hr10095"
}
```

### How it works

Direct calls to the public [GovTrack.us API](https://www.govtrack.us/developers/api)
— no proxy, no key, no scraping. GovTrack aggregates official
congress.gov/THOMAS legislative data into a clean public API.

### Pricing note

Billed per **search**, not per bill returned — one charge whether the
search returns 0 bills or 100.

### Related products

- [Federal Register Tracker](https://github.com/timmKal01/federal-register-tracker) — the agency-rulemaking counterpart (not legislation)

# Actor input Schema

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Free-text search against bill titles, e.g. "climate" or "broadband". Leave blank to return all recently introduced bills.

## `currentStatus` (type: `string`):

Filter to one exact legislative status. Common values: introduced, reported, passed\_bill, enacted\_signed, vetoed\_pocket. Full valid set: introduced, reported, pass\_over\_house, pass\_over\_senate, passed\_simpleres, passed\_constamend, passed\_concurrentres, passed\_bill, pass\_back\_house, pass\_back\_senate, conference\_passed\_house, conference\_passed\_senate, prov\_kill\_suspensionfailed, prov\_kill\_cloturefailed, prov\_kill\_pingpongfail, prov\_kill\_veto, fail\_originating\_house, fail\_originating\_senate, fail\_second\_house, fail\_second\_senate, override\_pass\_over\_house, override\_pass\_over\_senate, vetoed\_pocket, vetoed\_override\_fail\_originating\_house, vetoed\_override\_fail\_originating\_senate, vetoed\_override\_fail\_second\_house, vetoed\_override\_fail\_second\_senate, enacted\_signed, enacted\_veto\_override, enacted\_tendayrule, enacted\_unknown, enacted\_incorporation. Leave blank for any status.

## `congress` (type: `integer`):

Limit to one numbered Congress, e.g. 119 for the current 2025-2027 Congress. Leave blank for any.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

Only return bills introduced within this many days.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of bills to return.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "daysBack": 7,
  "maxResults": 25
}
```

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("m_ctim/congress-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("m_ctim/congress-bill-tracker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call m_ctim/congress-bill-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,m_ctim/congress-bill-tracker"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/wLoZCcDpakrhW1KBa/builds/uiSXh5qYn8eYRNWEV/openapi.json