Congress.gov Scraper — US Bills, Laws & Members

The authoritative source for US federal legislation, wrapped as a clean paginated actor. Three modes — bills, enacted laws, and members of Congress — from the official Congress.gov API. Filter by congress, bill/law type and sort, with optional per-bill enrichment (sponsor, policy area, cosponsor/action counts).

For legislative trackers, civic-data tools, and lead-gen (member contact data).

What you get

Bills / laws — kind, congress, type, number, title, originChamber, latestActionDate, latestActionText, laws[], updateDate, url. With includeBillDetail: also introducedDate, policyArea, sponsorName/sponsorParty/sponsorState/sponsorBioguideId, cosponsorsCount, actionsCount, committeesCount, constitutionalAuthorityStatementText.

Members — kind, bioguideId, name, partyName, state, district, chamber, termStartYear, termEndYear, imageUrl, updateDate, url.

Output sample (bill with detail)

{
  "kind": "bill",
  "congress": 118,
  "type": "HR",
  "number": "1",
  "title": "Lower Energy Costs Act",
  "originChamber": "House",
  "latestActionDate": "2023-03-30",
  "latestActionText": "Received in the Senate.",
  "laws": [],
  "updateDate": "2026-06-01",
  "url": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/118/hr/1?format=json",
  "introducedDate": "2023-03-14",
  "policyArea": "Energy",
  "sponsorName": "Rep. Scalise, Steve",
  "sponsorParty": "R",
  "sponsorState": "LA",
  "sponsorBioguideId": "S001176",
  "cosponsorsCount": 20,
  "actionsCount": 41,
  "committeesCount": 8,
  "constitutionalAuthorityStatementText": "..."
}

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	string	bills, laws, or members.
congress	integer	Congress number (e.g. 118). Required for laws.
billType	string	hr, s, hjres, … (bills mode).
lawType	string	pub or priv (laws mode).
sort	string	updateDate+desc / updateDate+asc (bills mode).
includeBillDetail	boolean	Enrich each bill with sponsor, policy area, counts (one extra request per bill).
apiKey	string (secret)	Your free api.data.gov key (DEMO_KEY fallback).
maxResults	integer	Cap on rows (default 100).

Example input

{
  "mode": "bills",
  "congress": 118,
  "billType": "hr",
  "sort": "updateDate+desc",
  "apiKey": "YOUR_KEY",
  "maxResults": 200
}

More: public laws {"mode":"laws","congress":117,"lawType":"pub","apiKey":"YOUR_KEY"}; members {"mode":"members","apiKey":"YOUR_KEY","maxResults":200}.

Bring your own key (free, required for real runs)

This actor uses the official Congress.gov API, which needs an api.data.gov key — free and instant at https://api.data.gov/signup/. Put it in the apiKey input (stored as a secret).

If you leave apiKey empty, the actor falls back to DEMO_KEY, which is heavily rate-limited by api.data.gov and only suitable for a quick test — not production runs. A bad key returns 403 and the actor exits cleanly.

Why this actor

• Authoritative source — the official Congress.gov API, not a third-party mirror.
• Three modes, full paging — bills / laws / members with limit-offset paging over whole result sets, not just page one.
• Optional enrichment — per-bill sponsor, policy area and counts when you need them.

Pricing

Pay per result — $4 per 1,000 results (one result = one bill, law or member). No subscription; you pay only for what you get. (The Congress.gov API key is free and separate.)

Notes & limits

• The list endpoints have no free-text search param; filter by congress, type, sort and paging.
• Public data; you are responsible for compliant use. Not affiliated with the Library of Congress.

Related actors

• CourtListener Scraper — US case law and court opinions.
• eCFR Scraper — US Code of Federal Regulations section text.
• SEC EDGAR Scraper — US public-company filings and full-text search.