Follow the flow › Step 7 of 16 · Voting path
7. Bill introduced
A bill is a written idea for a new law or a change to an old one. Only a member of Congress can introduce it. It gets a number: H.R. for the House, S. for the Senate. Most bills never become law. State legislatures work the same way with their own bill numbers.
Who holds the money or the vote here?
The sponsor (the member who introduced it) and co-sponsors.
How often does it happen?
Any day Congress is in session. A Congress lasts 2 years; unfinished bills die when it ends.
Where the records come from
Federal data is the same for everyone. When you pick a state, the state and local rows are the places to look for your state. "Have now" means PSI Sci already collects it; "Planned" means we list the source but do not collect it yet.
| Level | Source | Format | How often | On PSI Sci |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal | GovInfo BILLSTATUS bulk data (every bill, every action) PSI Sci collects this (fed-bills) | bulk XML | daily | Have now |
| Federal | Congress.gov / api.congress.gov | page/API | daily | Planned |
| State | Open States bills API / state legislature website (example: the Texas one) PSI Sci collects bills for 48 states plus TX, FL, VA, KS feeds | API/bulk | daily in session | Have now |
| County | Commissioners court agenda items tracked as todo rows us-county-meetings | page/PDF | each meeting | Planned |
| City | City council agenda items (ordinances, resolutions) | page/PDF | each meeting | Planned |
| District | Bills sponsored by your district's member | API | daily | Planned |
| ZIP | (bills are not tracked by ZIP; use your district) | - | - | Not used |
See these sources as searchable records (rendered live).
See it on PSI Sci now
Variable names
| Variable | Federal | State | County | City | District | ZIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id | bill_id |
bill_number | bill_number | bill_number | bill_number | bill_number | bill_number | bill_number |
congress | fed_congress | st_congress | cnty_congress | cty_congress | dist_congress | zip_congress |
sponsor_member_id | fed_sponsor_member_id | st_sponsor_member_id | cnty_sponsor_member_id | cty_sponsor_member_id | dist_sponsor_member_id | zip_sponsor_member_id |
introduced_date | fed_introduced_date | st_introduced_date | cnty_introduced_date | cty_introduced_date | dist_introduced_date | zip_introduced_date |
latest_action | fed_latest_action | st_latest_action | cnty_latest_action | cty_latest_action | dist_latest_action | zip_latest_action |
IDs (like bioguide_id, bill_id, piid, zcta) have no prefix because they already say what they point to.