Congress.gov - Federal Legislation & Bill Tracker

Search and monitor US federal legislation from Congress.gov. Filter by congress number, bill type, policy area, and keyword. Get bill titles, sponsors, cosponsors, introduced dates, latest actions, and direct Congress.gov links. Results in seconds, not manual archive searches.

No browser automation. Reads directly from the official Congress.gov API.

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What You Get

Each result is one federal bill or resolution.

Field	Type	Description
billNumber	string	Bill number (e.g. 1234)
billType	string	Bill type: HR, S, HJRES, SJRES, HRES, SRES
congress	integer	Congress number (e.g. 118 for the 118th Congress, 2023-2025)
billTitle	string	Full bill title
introducedDate	string	Date the bill was introduced
latestActionDate	string	Date of the most recent action
latestActionText	string	Description of the most recent action
sponsors	string	Sponsor names (comma-separated)
cosponsorsCount	integer	Number of cosponsors
policyArea	string	Assigned policy area (e.g. Energy, Health, Transportation)
originChamber	string	Originating chamber (House or Senate)
updateDate	string	Date the record was last updated
url	string	Direct Congress.gov URL for this bill

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Sample Output

{
  "billNumber": "5376",
  "billType": "HR",
  "congress": 117,
  "billTitle": "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022",
  "introducedDate": "2022-08-12",
  "latestActionDate": "2022-08-16",
  "latestActionText": "Became Public Law No: 117-169.",
  "sponsors": "John Yarmuth",
  "cosponsorsCount": 0,
  "policyArea": "Economics and Public Finance",
  "originChamber": "House",
  "url": "https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5376"
}

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Who Uses This

Government affairs and lobbying teams tracking legislation relevant to their clients. Search by policy area and keyword to monitor bills from introduction through final action without manually checking Congress.gov each day.

Compliance and regulatory teams monitoring legislation that could affect their industry. Filter by policy area (Health, Finance, Energy, Transportation) to catch bills early and build response timelines before they reach final passage.

Law firms and policy research groups building structured datasets of legislative activity. Batch-export bills by congress, chamber, and subject for comparative analysis, briefing materials, or academic research.

Corporate government relations teams tracking sponsor and cosponsor counts as signals of legislative momentum. High cosponsor counts on bills in your sector indicate political will that warrants early attention.

Journalists and policy analysts mapping legislative trends over time. Pull all bills from a given congress in a specific policy area to quantify activity, identify repeat sponsors, and measure how far bills advanced.

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How to Use

Step 1: Configure your input

Search by keyword across the current congress:

{
  "searchTerm": "infrastructure",
  "congress": 118,
  "maxResults": 50
}

Filter by bill type:

{
  "searchTerm": "climate",
  "congress": 118,
  "billType": "s",
  "maxResults": 25
}

Filter by policy area after keyword search:

{
  "searchTerm": "healthcare",
  "congress": 118,
  "subject": "Health",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Use your own API key for higher throughput:

{
  "searchTerm": "energy",
  "congress": 118,
  "apiKey": "YOUR_CONGRESS_GOV_KEY",
  "maxResults": 250
}

Input reference

Parameter	Type	Description
searchTerm	string	Keyword to filter bills by title (e.g. climate, healthcare, infrastructure).
congress	integer	US Congress number (e.g. 118 for 2023-2025, 117 for 2021-2023). Default 118.
billType	string	Bill type filter: hr, s, hjres, sjres, hres, sres. Leave blank for all types.
subject	string	Policy area filter applied after fetching details (e.g. Energy, Health, Transportation).
apiKey	string	Congress.gov API key. Leave blank to use DEMO_KEY (40 req/hr). Register free at api.congress.gov.
maxResults	integer	Maximum number of bills to return. Default 20, max 250.

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Cost Estimate

Pricing is $0.002 per result.

Run size	Estimated cost
20 results	~$0.04
100 results	~$0.20
250 results	~$0.50

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Output Formats

Results are available in JSON, CSV, and Excel from the Apify dataset viewer. Connect to downstream tools via the Apify API or webhooks.

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FAQ

Does this require a paid API key? No. The actor uses the free DEMO_KEY by default, which allows 40 requests per hour. For higher throughput, register a free personal key at api.congress.gov, which provides 5,000 requests per hour.

What congress numbers are available? Congress.gov covers the 93rd Congress (1973) through the current congress. The 118th Congress covers 2023-2025. The 119th Congress began January 2025.

What bill types are supported? HR (House Bill), S (Senate Bill), HJRES (House Joint Resolution), SJRES (Senate Joint Resolution), HRES (House Resolution), SRES (Senate Resolution). Pass the lowercase abbreviation (e.g. hr, s).

How does the subject filter work? The subject field filters by the policy area assigned by the Congressional Research Service. It is applied after the keyword search. Common values include Health, Energy, Finance and Financial Sector, Transportation and Public Works, Environmental Protection, and Armed Forces and National Security.

Is the data real-time? Yes. The actor queries the live Congress.gov API on each run. Results reflect the current state of the database including the latest bill actions and cosponsor counts at the time of the run.