Prepared by: Programs, Strategy, and Technology
U.S. Government Publishing Office
January 2015
- 1.0 January 2014 Version 1.0 House Bill Summaries
- 2.0 January 2015 Version 2.0 House and Senate Bill Summaries
At the direction of the Appropriations Committee within the United States House of Representatives, in support of the Legislative Branch Bulk Data Task Force, the Government Publishing Office (GPO), the Library of Congress (LOC), the Clerk of the House, and the Secretary of the Senate are making Bill Summaries in XML format available through the GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDsys) Bulk Data repository starting with the 113th Congress. The FDsys Bulk Data repository for Bill Summaries is available at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLSUM.
Bill summaries are summaries of bills or resolutions, as well as other document types associated with the legislative history of a measure such as amendments, committee reports, conference reports, or public laws (enacted bills or joint resolutions). A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and Federal programs. Bill summaries are written as a result of a Congressional action and may not always map to a printed bill version. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives.”
- House Bill (HR)
- Senate Bill (S)
A bill is a legislative proposal before Congress. Bills from each house are assigned a number in the order in which they are introduced, starting at the beginning of each Congress (first and second sessions). Public bills pertain to matters that affect the general public or classes of citizens, while private bills pertain to individual matters that affect individuals and organizations, such as claims against the Government.
- House Joint Resolution (HJRES)
- Senate Joint Resolution (SJRES)
A joint resolution is a legislative proposal that requires the approval of both houses and the signature of the President, just as a bill does. Resolutions from each house are assigned a number in the order in which they are introduced, starting at the beginning of each Congress (first and second sessions). There is no real difference between a bill and a joint resolution. Joint resolutions generally are used for limited matters, such as a single appropriation for a specific purpose. They are also used to propose amendments to the Constitution. 1A joint resolution has the force of law, if approved. Joint resolutions become a part of the Constitution when three-quarters of the states have ratified them; they do not require the President's signature.
- House Concurrent Resolution (HCONRES)
- Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCONRES)
A concurrent resolution is a legislative proposal that requires the approval of both houses but does not require the signature of the President and does not have the force of law. Concurrent resolutions generally are used to make or amend rules that apply to both houses. They are also used to express the sentiments of both of the houses. For example, a concurrent resolution is used to set the time of Congress' adjournment. It may also be used by Congress to convey congratulations to another country on the anniversary of its independence.
- House Simple Resolution (HRES)
- Senate Simple Resolution (SRES)
A simple resolution is a legislative proposal that addresses matters entirely within the prerogative of one house or the other. It requires neither the approval of the other house nor the signature of the President, and it does not have the force of law. Most simple resolutions concern the rules of one house. They are also used to express the sentiments of a single house. For example, a simple resolution may offer condolences to the family of a deceased member of Congress, or it may express the sense of the Senate or House on foreign policy or other executive business.
Additional information about bill types can be found at http://www.gpo.gov/help/index.html#about_congressional_bills.htm.
The Bill Summaries bulk data collection on FDsys includes XML bills summaries from the 113 th Congress forward.
The Bulk Data repository is organized by Congress and bill type. A ZIP file is available for each bill type and contains Bill Summaries XML files for that bill type within a specific Congress. Each Bill Summaries XML file contains summaries of legislation under consideration for a specific measure.
The following conventions are used in this document:
- XML element names are denoted with angled brackets and in courier. For example,
<title>is an XML element. - XML attribute names are denoted with a “@” prefix and in courier. For example, @href is an XML attribute.
-
<BillSummaries>Root element.
-
<item>Parent container for a single legislative measure.
-
<title>The latest title for the measure. It may be the official title or the short title. It is contained within
<item>. -
<summary>Parent container for a single summary. It may appear one or more times in the file. It is contained within
<item>. -
<action-date>The date on which a particular action occurred. The format is YYYY‐MM‐DD. It is contained within
<summary>. -
<action-desc>The description of the action that took place to prompt the bill summary to be written. It is contained within
<summary>. This value is added by CRS.See Section 3 of this document for a list of possible values.
-
<summary-text>This is the text of the summary written by the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. It is contained within
<summary>. Values are enclosed in a CDATA tag and contain HTML elements.
-
@congressThe number of the Congress. This is an attribute of
<item>. -
@measure-typeThe type of measure. This is an attribute of
<item>. The measure type abbreviations that can be found in bill summaries are hr, hjres, hconres, hres, s, sconres, sres, and sjres.See Section 1.1 of this document for a description of each measure type.
-
@measure-numberThe number associated with the measure. This is commonly referred to as the bill number. This is an attribute of
<item>. -
@measure-idAn ID assigned to the measure. This is an attribute of
<item>.Convention: “id” + Congress number + measure type abbreviation + measure number
Example: id113hr910
The measure type abbreviations that can be found in bill summaries are hr, hjres, hconres, hres, s, sconres, sres, and sjres.
See Section 1.1 of this document for a description of each measure type.
-
@originChamberThe chamber in which the measure originated. This is an attribute of
<item>. Value will be HOUSE or SENATE. -
@orig-publish-dateThe first date in which the bill summary file was published. The format is YYYY‐MM‐DD. This is an attribute of
<item>. -
@update-dateThe date in which the material in the container element was last updated. The format is YYYY‐MM‐DD. This is an attribute of
<item>and<summary>. -
@summary-idAn ID assigned to the individual summary. This is an attribute of
<summary>.Convention: “id” + Congress number + measure type abbreviation + measure cumber + the letter “v” for version + LOC action code for summaries
Example: id113hr910v28
The measure type abbreviations that can be found in bill summaries are hr, hjres, hconres, hres, s, sconres, sres, and sjres.
See Section 3 of this document for a list of LOC action codes for summaries.
-
@currentChamberThe chamber in which the action described in the
<action-desc>element occurred. This is an attribute of<summary>. Value will be HOUSE, SENATE, or BOTH.
<BillSummaries>
<item congress="113" measure-type="hr" measure-number="910" measure-
id="id113hr910" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2013-02-28"
update-date="2013-09-03">
<title>Sikes Act Reauthorization Act of 2013</title>
<summary summary-id="id113hr910v28" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-
date="2013-09-03">
<action-date>2013-06-24</action-date>
<action-desc>Reported to House without amendment, Part I</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[ <p><b>Sikes Act Reauthorization Act of 2013 - Reauthorizes title I
of the Sikes Act (conservation programs on military installations) for FY2015-
FY2019.</b></p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
<summary summary-id="id113hr910v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-
date="2013-02-28">
<action-date>2013-02-28</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p><b>(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced.
The summary of that version is repeated here.)</b></p> <p>Sikes Act Reauthorization Act of 2013 -
Reauthorizes title I of the Sikes Act (conservation programs on military installations) for FY2015-
FY2019.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
</item>
<dublinCore xmlns:dc=”http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/”>
<dc:format>text/xml</dc:format>
<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to
copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes
the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may
have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research
Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the
duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature
introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that
accompanies this file.</dc:description>
</dublinCore>
</BillSummaries>
| LOC Action Code for Summaries | Chamber | Text in the <action‐desc> Element |
LOC Version Code |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00 | HOUSE | Introduced in House | IH |
| 00 | SENATE | Introduced in Senate | IS |
| 01 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended | RS |
| 02 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 1st committee reporting | RS |
| 03 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 2nd committee reporting | RS |
| 04 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 3rd committee reporting | RS |
| 05 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 4th committee reporting | RS |
| 06 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 5th committee reporting | RS |
| 07 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 6th committee reporting | RS |
| 08 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 7th committee reporting | RS |
| 09 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 8th committee reporting | RS |
| 10 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 9th committee reporting | RS |
| 11 | SENATE | Reported to Senate amended, 10th committee reporting | RS |
| 12 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment, 1st committee reporting | RS |
| 13 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment, 2nd committee reporting | RS |
| 14 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment, 3rd committee reporting | RS |
| 15 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment, 4th committee reporting | RS |
| 16 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment, 5th committee reporting | RS |
| 17 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended | RH |
| 18 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part I | RH |
| 19 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part II | RH |
| 20 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part III | RH |
| 21 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part IV | RH |
| 22 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part V | RH |
| 23 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part VI | RH |
| 24 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part VII | RH |
| 25 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part VIII | RH |
| 26 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part IX | RH |
| 27 | HOUSE | Reported to House amended, Part X | RH |
| 28 | HOUSE | Reported to House without amendment, Part I | RH |
| 29 | HOUSE | Reported to House without amendment, Part II | RH |
| 30 | HOUSE | Reported to House without amendment, Part III | RH |
| 31 | HOUSE | Reported to House without amendment, Part IV | RH |
| 32 | HOUSE | Reported to House without amendment, Part V | RH |
| 33 | HOUSE | Laid on table in House | LTH |
| 34 | SENATE | Indefinitely postponed in Senate | IPS |
| 35 | SENATE | Passed Senate amended | ES |
| 36 | HOUSE | Passed House amended | EH |
| 37 | SENATE | Failed of passage in Senate | FPS |
| 38 | HOUSE | Failed of passage in House | FPH |
| 39 | HOUSE | Senate agreed to House amendment with amendment | ATS |
| 40 | SENATE | House agreed to Senate amendment with amendment | ATH |
| 41 | HOUSE | Senate disagreed to House amendment with amendment | NAT |
| 42 | SENATE | House disagreed to Senate amendment with amendment | NAT |
| 43 | HOUSE | Senate disagreed to House amendment | NAT |
| 44 | SENATE | House disagreed to Senate amendment | NAT |
| 45 | SENATE | Senate receded and concurred with amendment | AES |
| 46 | HOUSE | House receded and concurred with amendment | EAH |
| 47 | SENATE | Conference report filed in Senate | CONF-S |
| 48 | HOUSE | Conference report filed in House | CONF-H |
| 49 | BOTH | Public Law | LAW |
| 50 | BOTH | Private Law | LAW |
| 51 | BOTH | Line item veto by President | LINEITEMVETO |
| 52 | SENATE | Passed Senate amended, 2nd occurrence | ES |
| 53 | SENATE | Passed Senate amended, 3rd occurrence | ES |
| 54 | HOUSE | Passed House amended, 2nd occurrence | EH |
| 55 | HOUSE | Passed House amended, 3rd occurrence | EH |
| 56 | SENATE | Senate vitiated passage of bill after amendment | PAV |
| 57 | HOUSE | House vitiated passage of bill after amendment | PAV |
| 58 | SENATE | Motion to recommit bill as amended in Senate | MOTION_R-S |
| 59 | HOUSE | Motion to recommit bill as amended in House | MOTION_R-H |
| 60 | SENATE | Senate agreed to House amendment with amendment, 2nd occurrence | ATS |
| 61 | SENATE | Senate agreed to House amendment with amendment, 3rd occurrence | ATS |
| 62 | HOUSE | House agreed to Senate amendment with amendment, 2nd occurrence | ATH |
| 63 | HOUSE | House agreed to Senate amendment with amendment, 3rd occurrence | ATH |
| 64 | SENATE | Senate receded and concurred with amendment, 2nd occurrence | AES |
| 65 | SENATE | Senate receded and concurred with amendment, 3rd occurrence | AES |
| 66 | HOUSE | House receded and concurred with amendment, 2nd occurrence | EAH |
| 67 | HOUSE | House receded and concurred with amendment, 3rd occurrence | EAH |
| 70 | HOUSE | Hearing scheduled in House | HRG-SCD-H |
| 71 | SENATE | Hearing scheduled in Senate | HRG-SCD-S |
| 72 | HOUSE | Hearing held in House | HRG-H |
| 73 | SENATE | Hearing held in Senate | HRG-S |
| 74 | HOUSE | Markup in House | MKUP-H |
| 75 | SENATE | Markup in Senate | MKUP-S |
| 76 | HOUSE | Rule reported to House | RULE-H |
| 77 | HOUSE | Discharged from House committee | CDH |
| 78 | SENATE | Discharged from Senate committee | CDS |
| 79 | HOUSE | Reported to House, without amendment | RH |
| 80 | SENATE | Reported to Senate without amendment | RS |
| 81 | HOUSE | Passed House, without amendment | EH |
| 82 | SENATE | Passed Senate, without amendment | ES |
| 83 | SENATE | Conference report filed in Senate, 2nd conference report | CONF-S |
| 84 | SENATE | Conference report filed in Senate, 3rd conference report | CONF-S |
| 85 | SENATE | Conference report filed in Senate, 4th conference report | CONF-S |
| 86 | HOUSE | Conference report filed in House, 2nd conference report | CONF-H |
| 87 | HOUSE | Conference report filed in House, 3rd conference report | CONF-H |
| 88 | HOUSE | Conference report filed in House, 4th conference report | CONF-H |
Bill Summaries data is provided to GPO by the Library of Congress, and XML files are available for bulk data download on the FDsys Bulk Data repository starting with the 113th Congress (2013-2014). Bill Summaries XML files are not available through FDsys search or browse; they are only available in the FDsys Bulk Data repository.
In general, there are no restrictions on re-use of information in the Bill Summaries data set because U.S. Government works are not subject to copyright protection and are in the public domain. GPO and its legislative branch data partners do not restrict downstream uses of Bill Summaries data, except that independent providers should be aware that only GPO and its legislative branch data partners are entitled to represent that they are the providers of official Bill Summaries data.
Bill Summaries XML files can be manipulated and enriched to operate in the various applications that users may devise. GPO and its legislative branch data partners cannot vouch for the authenticity of data that is not under GPO’s control. GPO is providing free access to Bill Summaries XML files for display in various applications and mash-ups outside the FDsys domain. GPO does not endorse third party applications, and does not evaluate how the original legal content is displayed on other sites. Consumers should form their own conclusions as to whether the downloaded data can be relied upon within an application or mash-up.
The resources directory at http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLSUM/resources contains the User Guide for Bill Summaries XML Bulk Data in PDF form.