Congressional Bills Metadata Fields and Values

Metadata Field Display Name

Metadata Field Definition

Field Operator

Field Operator Example

Notes

Collection

The collection to which the document belongs. Typically the same as the publication or series.

collection:

collection:bills

"bills” is used for Bills

Government Author

The names of the Government organizations responsible for authoring or assembling the document.

governmentauthor:

governmentauthor:senate

Publication Date

The date the document was first made available to the public.

publishdate:

publishdate:2006-09-30

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Language

The language code of the original document, from the ISO639-2b standard.

language:

language:en

Former Package ID

The document ID of the "package" as originally specified on www.gpoaccess.gov.

mods:identifier:(@type:"former package identifier":______)

mods:identifier:(@type:"former package identifier":"f:h2800ih.txt")

Stock Number

The 12 digit GPO Sales stock number for the publication or series. Usually formatted like "769-004-00000-9".

stocknum:

stocknum:021-610-00252-9

SuDoc Class Number

The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency.

sudocclass:

sudocclass:"Y 1.6:"

The SuDoc Class Numbers in FDsys are  at the class stem level, not the book number level.

Ingestion Date

The date the document was ingested into the FDsys preservation repository.

ingestdate:

 ingestdate:2009-01-12

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Electronic Location (URL)

The URL where the document or the document in context (the content detail page) is located.

url:

url:"http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

pkg/BILLS-108s1314is/pdf/BILLS-108s1314is.pdf"

Publisher

The government organization who publishes the document or publication. Not typically the Government Printing Office (who serves as the printer and distributor), except in the case of Congressional publications.

publisher:

publisher:"u.s. government printing office"

Branch

The branch of Government responsible for the document's contents.

branch:

branch:legislative

Possible Values:

executive

legislative judicial

Type of Resource

The media type for the document, typically "text". Defined as part of the Library of Congress MODS standard.

typeofresource:

typeofresource:text

WAIS Database Name

The name of the WAIS database to which the document belonged in the former GPO Access system.

waisdbname:

waisdbname:109_cong_bills

Record Origin

How the record was originally generated. Typically "machine generated."

recordorigin:

recordorigin:"machine generated"

Full Title

The title of the publication.

title:

title:"math and science"

Short Title

The short title of the bill is a commonly used abbreviated version of the full title.

shorttitle:

shorttitle:"transportation empowerment act"

Congress Number

The number of the congress responsible for the bill. Congresses last for two years.

congress:

congress:109

Congress Session

Session of Congress. Each Congress is typically divided into two yearly sessions.

session:

session:2

Possible Values:

1

2

Chamber of Congress

The chamber in which the bill is being considered. This may not be the same as the chamber of origin.

chamber:

chamber:senate

Possible Values:

house

senate

Bill Type

Type of bill. Bill type is either House bill (H. R.), Senate bill, (S. ), House Resolution (H. Res.), Senate resolution (S. Res.), House Joint Resolution (H. J. Res.), Senate Joint Resolution (S. J. Res,), House Concurrent Resolution (H. Con. Res), Senate Concurrent Resolution (S. Con. Res.), House Simple Resolutions (H. Res.) or Senate Simple Resolutions (S. Res).    

billtype:

billtype:hjres

Possible Values:

hr

s

hjres

sjres

hconres sconres

hres

sres

Bill Number

Bill number for the bill. Bills are numbered per Congress and bill type.

docnumber:

docnumber:12

Bill Version

Version of the bill. Corresponds to a step in the legislative process. Multiple bill versions can be associated with a bill number.

billversion:

billversion:ih

Possible Values: “Abbreviations for Versions of Bills”.

Committee

Congressional committee names listed in the bill and located in the bill action.

committee:

committee:transportation

Sponsors and Cosponsors

Senator and Representative names listed in the bill and located in the bill action. Generally, these are the bill sponsors and co-sponsors. All sponsors and co-sponsors are not listed on the bill. There are no sponsors or co-sponsors listed on the enrolled version of the bill.

member:

member:obama

Member of Congress Political Party

The party to which the member belongs, either "democratic", "republican", or "independent".

memberparty:

memberparty:r

Possible Values:

d

r

i

Member of Congress State

Member of Congress state code (the two letter postal code of the state).

memberstate:

memberstate:ca

Use two letter state abbreviation

Actions

The text of the actions listed in the bill. This includes the action itself (e.g. "introduced into the house") as well as the list of sponsors and cosponsors, if specified.

action:

action:"introduced the following bill"

Action Date

The date an action occurred as listed in the bill.

actiondate:

actiondate:2005-02-09

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Action Legislative Day

The legislative day when an action occurred on a bill.

actionlegislativedate:

actionlegislativedate:2007-12-18

Date format is YYYY-MM-DD

Is Private Bill

Preliminary flag to indicate if  the bill is private or public. Please refer to the Calendar of the House of Representatives for more information about the bill.  

isprivate:

isprivate:false

Possible values:

true

false

Is Appropriation

Flag indicates that a bill includes the words to make appropriations, making appropriations, making emergency supplemental appropriations, making further continuing appropriations, making continuing appropriations, or to authorize appropriations in its full title.

isappropriation:

isappropriation:true

Possible values:

true

false

Citation

The GPO standard method for searching citation references from the selected publication.

citation:

citation:"h.r. 1234"

United States Code References

Reference to a United States Code citation within the text of the document. This citation may only include the United States Code Title and Section, chapter, or appendix numbers. For example 43 U.S.C. 1337(g) or 50 U.S.C. App. 2078.

uscodecitation:

uscodecitation:"43 U.S.C. 1337"

Statutes at Large Citation

Reference to a Statutes at Large citation within the text of the document. For example, "Stat. L. 153-12302"

statutecitation:

statutecitation:"100 Stat. 4093"

Public and Private Law Reference

A referenced public or private law.

plawcitation:

plawcitation:Public Law 103-206

Report Number

Reference to a congressional report within the text of the document. For example, "H. Rept. 110-32".

crptcitation:

crptcitation:109-363

Calendar Number Citation

Reference to a congressional calendar number within the text of a document.

ccalcitation:

ccalcitation:"Private Calendar No. 1"

Reference Citation

Reference to another document within the text of a document.

refcitation:

refcitation:"H.R. 1"