Floor Updates

Recent real time, to-the-minute updates from the House and Senate floor. House floor updates are sourced from XML at the House Clerk, and Senate updates from the Senate Periodical Press Gallery.

This endpoint focuses on the recent past. We don’t automatically delete old floor updates, but we also don’t guarantee non-recent data will remain available.

Methods

All requests require a valid API key, and use the domain:

https://congress.api.sunlightfoundation.com

/floor_updates

Search and filter through floor updates in the House and Senate. Filter by any fields below that have a star next to them. All standard operators apply.

Senate floor updates in the 113th Congress

/floor_updates?chamber=senate&congress=113

Floor activity on a given bill

/floor_updates?bill_ids=s968-112

House voice votes

/floor_updates?chamber=house&query=Agreed to by voice vote

The value of the query parameter will be matched against floor updates’ update field.

Fields

* = can be used as a filter

{
  "chamber": "house",
  "timestamp": "2013-01-04T18:34:14Z",
  "congress": 113,
  "year": 2013,
  "legislative_day": "2013-01-04",
  "update": "The House adjourned pursuant to S. Con. Res. 3. The next meeting is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on January 14, 2013.",
  "bill_ids": [
    "sconres3-113"
  ],
  "roll_ids": [],
  "legislator_ids": []
}

* chamber
The chamber this update took place in. “house” or “senate”.

* timestamp
The time this update took place. For Senate updates, this actually means the time our system first observed the update, and is susceptible to error; the Senate does not offer precise timestamps.

* congress
The number of the Congress this update took place during.

* legislative_day
The “legislative day” this update took place in. The “legislative day” is a formal construct that is usually, but not always, the same as the calendar day. For example, if a day’s session of Congress runs past midnight, the legislative_day will often stay the same as it was before midnight, until that session adjourns. On January 3rd, it is possible that the same legislative_day could span two Congresses. (This occurred in 2013.)

* year
The “legislative year” of the update. This is not quite the same as the calendar year - the legislative year changes at noon EST on January 3rd. A vote taken on January 1, 2013 has a “legislative year” of 2012.

update
The text of the update.

* bill_ids
An array of IDs of bills that are referenced by or associated with this floor update.

* roll_ids
An array of IDs of roll call votes that are referenced by or associated with this floor update.

* legislator_ids
An array of bioguide IDs of legislators that are referenced by this floor update.