Coverage Dates for Congress.gov Collections

Current congress information is usually updated the morning after House or Senate chamber sessions adjourn. The table below notes estimated availability times. See About pages in the Help Center for more information about the content of each collection.

Legislation

Note: See Legislation Text table below for update times and coverage dates for full text included in the Legislation collection.

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Actions Overview 8:00 a.m. 1973 93rd – present1
All Actions Except Amendments 8:00 a.m. 1973 93rd – present
Amendment Actions 8:00 a.m. 1981 97th – present
All Actions 8:00 a.m. 1981 97th – present
Bill Summaries varies 1973 93rd – present
Committee and subcommittee actions 8:00 a.m. 1981 97th – present2
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Cost Estimates 8:00 a.m. 1997 105th – present
Cosponsors 8:00 a.m. 1973 93rd – present3
Legislative Indexing Vocabulary (LIV) not updated 1973 93rd – 110th (2008)
Legislative Subject terms varies 2009 111th – present
Policy Area terms varies 1973 93rd – present

Legislation Text

Data Set Available Formats Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Amendment Text (Senate) TXT, PDF 10:00 a.m. 2015 114th – present4
Bill and Resolution Text XML, PDF, TXT (plain text) varies5 2007 – present 110th – present
Bill and Resolution Text PDF, TXT not updated 1993 – 2006 103rd – 109th
Bill and Resolution Text TXT (creation of PDF is in exploratory phase) not updated 1989 – 1992 101st – 102nd
Bill Text (historical)6 None not updated 1874 -1988 43rd – 100th
Bill Text (historical) PDF (non-searchable) not updated 1810 – 1873 11th – 43rd
Bill Text (historical) TXT not updated 1799 – 1809 6th – 10th
Concurrent Resolution Text – Statutes at Large PDF, TXT not updated 1973 93rd – 116th7
Law Text – Public and Private (slip law) PDF, TXT, BETA USLM varies 1995 104th – present
Law Text – Statutes at Large PDF not updated 1951 82nd – 116th7

Committee

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Committee Meeting Announcements (House) varies 2017 115th – present
Committee Meeting Videos (House) varies 2011 112th – present
Committee Meeting Announcements (Senate) varies June 2019 116th – present
Committee Meeting Videos (Senate) varies 2024 118th – present
Committee Hearing Transcripts varies 1995 104th – present
Committee Prints varies 1993 103rd – present
Committee Profiles 8:00 a.m. varies varies8
Committee Reports varies 1995 104th – present

Congressional Record

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Congressional Record Index varies 1995 104th – present
Daily edition (full text) 10:00 a.m.9 1995 104th – present10
Bill History in the Congressional Record varies 1995 104th – present
Member’s Remarks in the Congressional Record varies 2005 109th – present
Bound Edition not updated 1873 43rd – 103rd (1994)

Historical Debates of Congress

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Annals of Congress not updated 1789 1st – 18th
Congressional Globe not updated 1833 23rd – 42nd
Register of Debates not updated 1823 18th – 25th

Congressional Research Service Products

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
CRS Products varies 1997 Not applicable

Executive and Other Communications

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Executive and Other Communications (House) 8 a.m. 2015 114th – present
Executive and Other Communications (House Requirements) 8 a.m. 2016 Not applicable
Executive and Other Communications (Senate) 8 a.m. 1979 96th – present

Journals

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
House Journal (historical) not updated 1789 1st – 43rd
Senate Journal (historical) not updated 1789 1st – 43rd
Senate Executive Journal (historical) not updated 1789 1st – 43rd

Members

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Member profiles 8 a.m. 1971 92nd – present11
Senate committee membership varies current current

Nominations

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Nominations 8:00 a.m. 1981 97th – present

Treaty Documents

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
Treaty Document Status (metadata) 8:00 a.m. 1975 94th – present12
Treaty Document (full text) varies 1995 104th – present
Treaty Document Resolution of Ratification (full text) 8:00 a.m. 1985 99th – present

Votes

Data Set Estimated Update Time Start Year Congresses Covered
House Roll Call Votes varies 2019 116th – present

Footnotes

  1. Actions Overview data for historical bills (prior to 1973) are less complete than contemporary records (1973-present). Actions Overview data are present for measures that became law from 1951 to 1972 (82nd to 92nd Congresses) and for some bills and joint resolutions from 1799 to 1873 (6th to 42nd Congresses). Learn more at About Legislation. (Return to text)
  2. Committee and subcommittee actions are not available for legislation from 1973 (93rd Congress) to 1980 (96th Congress) except for reporting from committee. Referral to committee, reporting by committee, and discharge from committee are covered but committee hearings, markups, and other actions are not available. The date of initial referral to committee matches the measure’s date of introduction because specific date information was not recorded for these actions. Referral to subcommittee is not available and subcommittee actions are not available. (Return to text)
  3. Congress.gov displays cosponsorship dates including identification of original cosponsors since 1981 (97th Congress). Prior to 1981 (93rd to 96th Congresses) cosponsors are listed in the order in which they were added to the bill but the dates added are not available. The lack of dates means that original cosponsorship is not known. Also not available is information about when a cosponsorship was withdrawn. (Return to text)
  4. Full text of Senate submitted amendments is displayed and searchable on Congress.gov for the 114th Congress  forward.  Links to text in the Congressional Record are provided for Senate amendments prior to the 114th Congress and for House amendments.  See About the Congressional Record to learn more about searching the Congressional Record. (Return to text)
  5. Bill Text (full text) – The Government Publishing Office (GPO) makes the text of legislative measures available to the public and the Library of Congress. GPO makes the text available as soon as possible, but delays can occur when there are many or very large legislative measures for GPO to prepare and print at the same time. Texts not yet published by GPO may be available from Bills to Be Considered or committee web sites. Senate bills usually take at least 5 business days. Please note that Senate bills are not made available before GPO has completed printing them. Online copies and printed copies are usually made available at the same time. (Return to text)
  6. Bill and resolution texts that predate authenticated digital publishing are partially available for the following years: from 1799 (6th Congress) to 1811 (11th Congress), from 1813 (13th Congress) to 1873 (42nd Congress), and from 1951 (82nd Congress) to 1992 (102nd Congress). Historical text may be missing, incomplete or inaccurate. See About Historical Bill Text and Documents for more information. (Return to text)
  7. Additional Statutes at Large texts are added as new volumes are published by GPO.(Return to text)
  8. Committee profiles are available for active and terminated committees, commissions, caucuses, and panels for which there are related data (e.g., legislation, committee reports) on Congress.gov. For a list of committee profiles available on Congress.gov, visit the Committee Name History page. (Return to text)
  9. New daily issues, reporting business from the previous day if either the House or Senate or both met, are usually available by 10:00 am. Late availability, often due to a late night Congressional session, is announced on the Most Recent Issue page. (Return to text)
  10. Daily editions of the Congressional Record from 1989 (101st Congress) to 1994 (103rd Congress) can be browsed from the Congressional Record Archive. This archived set predates authenticated digital publishing. Among the documents known to be missing from the set are:
    • November 13, 1989 – entire issue
    • Conference reports from 101st Congress for: H.R.7, H.R.1465, H.R.996, H.R.2939, H.R.3072, H.R.3614, H.R.5114, H.R.5399, H.R.5769, S.580, S.1939, S.2740
    • Conference reports from 102nd Congress for: H.Con.Res.287, H.R.2038, H.R.2508, H.R.2519, H.R.2608, H.R.5006, H.R.5487
      (Return to text)
  11. Includes Members from 1923 (68th Congress) to 1970 (91st Congress) who were serving still in 1971 (92nd Congress). (Return to text)
  12. Includes Treaty Documents submitted since 1949 (81st Congress) that were pending in 1975 (94th Congress). (Return to text)