chrissoria/federal-votes

Federal Bills & Votes Datasets

Two linked datasets tracking U.S. federal legislation in the 119th Congress (2025–2026):

• chrissoria/federal-bills-active — 2,531 bills with full text, status, sponsors, and vote breakdowns
• chrissoria/federal-votes — 56,569 individual legislator votes (alter-level)

Both datasets update daily at 9:15 AM via automated pipeline.

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federal-bills-active — Codebook

Date Columns

Column	Type	Description
date_last_action	string	Date of the most recent action on the bill (YYYY-MM-DD). Dataset is sorted by this column, newest first.
date_introduced	string	Date the bill was first introduced in its chamber of origin.
date_updated	string	Date the record was last updated in the Congress.gov system. May reflect metadata changes, not substantive action.

Bill Identity

Column	Type	Description
bill_type	string	Type of legislation. See values below.
bill_number	string	Numeric identifier within the bill type (e.g., "7147").
congress	string	Congressional session number. "119" = 119th Congress (Jan 2025 – Jan 2027).
title	string	Official long title of the bill.
short_title	string	Popular/short title if available (often empty for bills in early stages).
status	string	Current stage in the legislative process. See values below.
last_action_text	string	Full text of the most recent action (e.g., "Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.").

bill_type Values

Value	Meaning	Count
HR	House Bill — standard legislation originating in the House	1,519
S	Senate Bill — standard legislation originating in the Senate	665
HRES	House Resolution — non-binding, House-only (rules, opinions)	154
SRES	Senate Resolution — non-binding, Senate-only	89
HJRES	House Joint Resolution — binding, requires both chambers + President (often constitutional amendments)	60
SJRES	Senate Joint Resolution — same as HJRES but originates in Senate	23
HCONRES	House Concurrent Resolution — non-binding, both chambers (budget, adjournment)	14
SCONRES	Senate Concurrent Resolution — same as HCONRES but originates in Senate	7

status Values (Legislative Pipeline)

Listed in order of the legislative process:

Value	Meaning	Count
Introduced	Filed but no committee assignment yet	11
In Committee	Referred to one or more committees for review	2,051
Reported from Committee	Committee approved the bill (voted to report it)	62
Calendared	Placed on the chamber's legislative calendar (scheduled for floor action)	100
Passed House	Approved by the House of Representatives	173
Passed Senate	Approved by the Senate	88
Senate Floor	Active on the Senate floor (cloture votes, debate) but not yet passed	4
Signed into Law	Passed both chambers and signed by the President	40
Vetoed	Passed both chambers but vetoed by the President	2

Sponsor Information

Column	Type	Description
sponsor_full_name	string	Full name with title, party, and state (e.g., "Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4]").
sponsor_party	string	Party of the bill's primary sponsor: R (Republican), D (Democrat), I (Independent).
sponsor_state	string	Two-letter state abbreviation of the sponsor.
num_cosponsors	int	Number of cosponsors who signed onto the bill.
chamber_of_origin	string	House or Senate — where the bill was introduced.

Classification

Column	Type	Description
policy_area	string	Primary policy area assigned by CRS (Congressional Research Service). Top areas: Taxation, Government Operations, Health, Armed Forces, Crime, International Affairs.
subjects	string	Semicolon-separated list of subject terms (e.g., "Immigration; Border security; Department of Homeland Security").

Vote Data (Passage Votes)

These columns are populated only for bills that have had recorded floor votes. Null for bills still in committee.

Column	Type	Description
republican_yeas	float	Number of Republican Yea/Aye votes on passage.
democrat_yeas	float	Number of Democrat Yea/Aye votes on passage.
republican_nays	float	Number of Republican Nay/No votes on passage.
democrat_nays	float	Number of Democrat Nay/No votes on passage.
total_yeas	float	Total Yea/Aye votes across all parties.
total_nays	float	Total Nay/No votes across all parties.
republican_support_pct	float	Percentage of voting Republicans who voted Yea (0–100).
democrat_support_pct	float	Percentage of voting Democrats who voted Yea (0–100).
is_bipartisan	bool	True if both parties had >10% support.

Text and Metadata

Column	Type	Description
text	string	Full text of the bill (latest version). Plain text extracted from Congress.gov.
bill_text_version	string	Version of the text (e.g., "Introduced in House", "Engrossed in House", "Enrolled Bill").
url	string	Link to the bill page on congress.gov.
pdf_url	string	Link to PDF version (when available).
doc_type	string	Always "bill" in this dataset.
source	string	Always "federal_bills_active".

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federal-votes — Codebook

One row per legislator per roll call vote (alter-level data). Join to bills on bill_type + bill_number + congress.

Column	Type	Description
date_of_vote	string	Date the roll call vote occurred (YYYY-MM-DD). Dataset sorted newest first.
bill_type	string	Bill type (HR, S, HJRES, etc.). Foreign key to bills dataset.
bill_number	string	Bill number. Foreign key to bills dataset.
congress	string	Congressional session ("119").
chamber	string	House or Senate — where this vote took place.
roll_call_number	int	Official roll call number for the session.
vote_type	string	What was being voted on. See values below.
vote_outcome	string	Result of the vote: Passed, Failed, Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Rejected, or empty.
legislator_full_name	string	Legislator's name (House: last name only; Senate: "Last, First").
legislator_id	string	Official ID (House: name-id attribute; Senate: LIS member ID).
party	string	R (Republican), D (Democrat), or I (Independent).
state	string	Two-letter state abbreviation.
district	string	Congressional district number (House only; empty for Senate).
vote	string	Individual vote cast. See values below.
total_yeas	int	Total Yea votes on this roll call (all legislators).
total_nays	int	Total Nay votes on this roll call (all legislators).

vote Values

Value	Meaning	Count
Yea	Voted in favor (Senate and some House votes)	37,250
Nay	Voted against (Senate and some House votes)	14,679
Aye	Voted in favor (House suspension votes)	1,288
No	Voted against (House suspension votes)	1,239
Not Voting	Did not vote (absent, abstained, or recused)	2,100
Present	Voted "present" (neither for nor against)	13

vote_type Values (Top 10)

Value	Meaning	Count
On Passage	Final vote on whether to pass the bill	17,302
On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass	Expedited passage (2/3 majority required, no amendments)	15,141
On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended	Same as above, with amendments	6,045
On Motion to Recommit	Vote to send bill back to committee (usually fails)	5,626
On the Motion	General procedural motion	1,800
On Ordering the Previous Question	House procedural vote to end debate	1,733
On Agreeing to the Resolution	Vote on a resolution	1,733
On the Motion to Proceed	Senate vote to begin debate on a bill	1,498
On the Joint Resolution	Vote on a joint resolution	1,200
On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed	Senate vote to overcome filibuster (60 votes needed)	1,199

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Joining the Datasets

import pandas as pd
from datasets import load_dataset

bills = load_dataset("chrissoria/federal-bills-active", split="train").to_pandas()
votes = load_dataset("chrissoria/federal-votes", split="train").to_pandas()

# Join: get all individual votes for a specific bill
hr7147_votes = votes[(votes["bill_type"] == "HR") & (votes["bill_number"] == "7147")]

# Voting pattern by party
hr7147_votes.groupby(["party", "vote"]).size().unstack(fill_value=0)

# Join bills with vote summary
merged = bills.merge(
    votes.groupby(["bill_type", "bill_number"]).size().reset_index(name="num_votes"),
    on=["bill_type", "bill_number"],
    how="left"
)

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Data Source

• API: Congress.gov API (bill metadata, actions, subjects, text)
• House Roll Calls: clerk.house.gov (XML)
• Senate Roll Calls: senate.gov (XML)
• Update frequency: Daily at 9:15 AM PT (incremental)
• Coverage: 119th Congress (January 2025 – present)

License

GPL-3.0-or-later