Reference · Bills/docs/bills

Bills

Page through the bill mirror, or resolve a single bill by id.

GEThttps://api.archivist.dev/bills{id}

Request

The list endpoint at /bills accepts the following query parameters. A specific record can be fetched by appending its id segment.

Request parameters

Name	In	Type	Required	Description
{id}	path	string	optional	Bill id in the form {congress}-{type}-{number} — e.g. 118-hr-3076.
congress	query	integer	optional	Filter to a single Congress number (e.g. 118).
type	query	string	optional	One of hr, s, hjres, sjres, hconres, sconres, hres, sres.
q	query	string	optional	Case-insensitive substring search on the official title.
cursor	query	string	optional	Opaque pagination cursor returned in the previous response.
limit	query	integer	optional	Page size, 1–100. Defaults to 25.

Run it — curl

curl···

# Page 1 — most recent bills
curl https://api.archivist.dev/bills \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY"

# A single bill by stable id
curl https://api.archivist.dev/bills/118-hr-3076 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ARCHIVIST_KEY"

Run it — JavaScript

Plain fetch — no SDK, no runtime dependency. The key reads from env at server startup.

bills.js···

const res = await fetch('https://api.archivist.dev/bills', {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ARCHIVIST_KEY}` },
});
const { items, nextCursor } = await res.json();

for (const bill of items) {
  console.log(`${bill.id} — ${bill.officialTitle}`);
}

Response

Successful responses are 200 OK with the shape below. Errors come back as { "error": "..." } — see the error reference for the full status table.

Response schema

Field	Type	Required	Description
items	BillItem[]	required	Page of bills, ordered by congress DESC, number DESC.
items[].id	string	required	Stable id of the form {congress}-{type}-{number}.
items[].congress	integer	required	Congress number (e.g. 118, 119).
items[].type	string	required	Bill type code: hr, s, hjres, etc.
items[].number	integer	required	Bill number within that type and Congress.
items[].officialTitle	string	required	The bill’s official short title.
items[].introducedDate	string \| null	required	ISO 8601 date the bill was introduced, or null.
items[].memberName	string \| null	required	Latest known sponsor name. Resolved across Congress transitions.
items[].memberBioguideId	string \| null	optional	Bioguide id of the sponsor (e.g. P000197), cross-reference with /members.
items[].memberByCongressKey	string \| null	optional	Per-Congress sponsor key, joins to /members/{id}.
items[].committeeNames	string	required	Comma-separated committee names currently referred.
items[].sourceUrl	string \| null	optional	Canonical Congress.gov URL.
nextCursor	string \| null	required	Pass into the next page; null on the last page.

response···

{
  "items": [
    {
      "id": "118-hr-3076",
      "congress": 118,
      "type": "hr",
      "number": 3076,
      "officialTitle": "Civic Data Continuity Act",
      "introducedDate": "2023-09-12",
      "memberName": "Pelosi, Nancy",
      "memberBioguideId": "P000197",
      "memberByCongressKey": "118-h-P000197",
      "committeeNames": "House Oversight,House Administration",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/3076"
    }
  ],
  "nextCursor": "eyJpZCI6IjExOC1ocy0yMTA0In0="
}

Related endpoints

Notes

The list endpoint is idempotent and cursor-paginated; pages remain stable as new bills land at the top.
A single bill may be fetched directly at /bills/{id} — the same shape without the items wrapper.