bills
Get and filter lists of Congressional Bills.
Examples
from openbb import obb
obb.uscongress.bills()
obb.uscongress.bills(start_date='2025-01-01', end_date='2025-01-31')
# Get all bills of type 's' (Senate) for the 118th Congress.
obb.uscongress.bills(bill_type='s', congress=118, limit=0)
Parameters
- standard
- congress_gov
congress: int | None
Congress number (e.g., 118 for the 118th Congress). The 103rd Congress started in 1993, which is the earliest date supporting full text versions. Each Congress spans two years, starting in odd-numbered years.
bill_type: str | None
Description
Bill type (e.g., 'hr' for House bills).
Must be one of: hr, s, hjres, sjres, hconres, sconres, hres, sres.
Bills
-----
A bill is the form used for most legislation, whether permanent or temporary, general or special, public or private.
A bill originating in the House of Representatives is designated by the letters “H.R.”,
signifying “House of Representatives”, followed by a number that it retains throughout all its parliamentary stages.
Bills are presented to the President for action when approved in identical form
by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Joint Resolutions
-----------------
Joint resolutions may originate either in the House of Representatives or in the Senate.
There is little practical difference between a bill and a joint resolution. Both are subject to the same procedure,
except for a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution.
On approval of such a resolution by two-thirds of both the House and Senate,
it is sent directly to the Administrator of General Services for submission to the individual states for ratification.
It is not presented to the President for approval.
A joint resolution originating in the House of Representatives is designated “H.J.Res.” followed by its individual number.
Joint resolutions become law in the same manner as bills.
Concurrent Resolutions
----------------------
Matters affecting the operations of both the House of Representatives and Senate
are usually initiated by means of concurrent resolutions.
A concurrent resolution originating in the House of Representatives is designated “H.Con.Res.”
followed by its individual number.
On approval by both the House of Representatives and Senate,
they are signed by the Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate.
They are not presented to the President for action.
Simple Resolutions
------------------
A matter concerning the operation of either the House of Representatives or Senate
alone is initiated by a simple resolution.
A resolution affecting the House of Representatives is designated “H.Res.” followed by its number.
They are not presented to the President for action.
start_date: date | None | str
Start date of the data, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Filters bills by the last updated date.
end_date: date | None | str
End date of the data, in YYYY-MM-DD format. Filters bills by the last updated date.
limit: int | None
The number of data entries to return. When None, default sets to 100 (max 250). Set to 0 for no limit (must be used with 'bill_type' and 'congress'). Setting to 0 will nullify the start_date, end_date, and offset parameters.
offset: int | None
The starting record returned. 0 is the first record.
sort_by: Literal['asc', 'desc'] | None
Default: desc
Sort by update date. Default is latest first.
Returns
results: CongressBills
Serializable results.
provider: Optional[Literal['congress_gov']]
Provider name.
warnings: Optional[list[Warning_]]
list of warnings.
chart: Optional[Chart]
Chart object.
extra: dict[str, Any]
Extra info.
Data
- standard
- congress_gov
update_date: date
The date the bill was last updated.
latest_action_date: date | None
The date of the latest action on the bill.
bill_url: str
Base URL to the bill for the congress.gov API.
congress: int
The congress session number.
bill_number: int
The bill number.
origin_chamber: str
The chamber where the bill originated.
origin_chamber_code: str
The chamber code where the bill originated.
bill_type: str
The type of bill (e.g., HR, S).
title: str
The title of the bill.
latest_action: str | None
Latest action information for the bill.
update_date_including_text: datetime | None
The date and time the bill text was last updated.