Bill Objects

Warning

Parts of Open Civic Data underwent a large refactor as of mid-2014, some information on this page may be out of date. We’re working on updating this documentation as soon as possible.

We’ll remove these messages from pages as they’re updated and vetted.

Bill objects have the following fields:

Basics

_type (string)

All bills have a _type field set to bill. (required)

Allowed values:

• bill

organization (string, null)

name of the legislative body that this bill belongs to (required)

organization_id (string, null)

ID of legislative body that this bill belongs to (required)

session (string)

associated with one of the jurisdiction’s sessions (required)

name (string)

jurisdiction-assigned permanent name. Must be unique within a given session (e.g. HB 3). Note: not to be confused with title. (required)

chamber (string, null)

chamber vote took place in (if legislature is bicameral, otherwise null) (required)

Allowed values:

• upper

• lower

• joint

title (string)

primary display title for the bill (required)

type (array)

array of types (e.g. bill, resolution) (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in type is of type (string)

subject (array)

List of related subjects. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in subject is of type (string)

summaries (array)

List of summaries of bill, each item in list has a note and text attribute. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in summaries is an object with the following keys:

note (string, null)

note describing source of summary (required)

text (string)

Summary of bill. (required)

Common Fields

updated_at (string, datetime)

the time that the object was last updated

created_at (string, datetime)

the time that this object was first created

sources (array)

URLs for sources relating to the object (required, minItems: 1)

Each element in sources is an object with the following keys:

url (string)

URL of resource used to collect information (required)

note (null, string)

note about what information this URL was used for (required)

Other/Related Bills

other_titles (array)

list of other titles this bill is known by.A common use is when a state provides a common title and a long or technical title as well. It is also acceptable to include popular but unofficial titles of the bill as well, such as’Obamacare’ for the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.’note can be used to describe the relationship this has to the bill, for example Obamacare might be noted as a colloquial name. Each item in the list has a title and a note. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in other_titles is an object with the following keys:

note (string, null)

Note describing source. (required)

title (string)

Alternate title. (required)

other_names (array)

list of other names this bill is known by in the current session, for example if HB 33 and SB 17 refer to the same bill this prevents having to have identical entries for each. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in other_names is an object with the following keys:

note (string, null)

note describing why this name is attached (required)

name (string)

name (e.g. HB 22) (required)

related_bills (array)

Links to related bills. Currently only used for companion bills, but extensible for other uses. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in related_bills is an object with the following keys:

session (string)

Session of related bill. (required)

name (string)

Name of related bill. (required)

relation_type (string)

(required)

Allowed values:

• companion

• prior-session

• replaced-by

• replaces

Sponsors and Actions

sponsors (array)

List of entities responsible for sponsoring/authoring the bill. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in sponsors is an object with the following keys:

_type (string, null)

Type of entity if the sponsor has been resolved to another entity in the database. (required)

Allowed values:

• organization

• person

name (string)

Name of sponsor, as given by source. (required)

sponsorship_type (string)

Type of sponsorship, via upstream source. (required)

primary (boolean)

Indicates if sponsor is considered primary by source (required)

chamber (string, null)

Chamber of sponsor. (required)

Allowed values:

• upper

• lower

id (string, null)

ID of entity if the sponsor has been resolved to another entity in the database. (required)

actions (array)

List of actions taken on the bill. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in actions is an object with the following keys:

date (string)

date of action (required)

(must match format: ^[0-9]{4}(-[0-9]{2}){0,2}$)

type (array)

array of normalized action types (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in type is of type (string)

description (string)

description of the action taken as given by source (required)

actor (string, null)

name for the actor (e.g. ‘upper’, ‘lower’, etc.) (required)

related_entities (array)

list of related entities for the action, such as related committee for a referral or a person for a sponsorship. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in related_entities is an object with the following keys:

_type (string, null)

Type of entity if the sponsor has been resolved to another entity in the database. (required)

Allowed values:

• organization

• person

name (string)

Name of entity given by source data (required)

id (string, null)

ID of entity if the sponsor has been resolved to another entity in the database. (required)

Documents and Versions

documents (array)

Any non-version related documents, elements are identical to versions. (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in documents is an object with the following keys:

date (string, null)

Document posting date (required)

(must match format: ^[0-9]{4}(-[0-9]{2}){0,2}$)

type (string, null)

Type of document (required)

name (string)

Name of document (required)

links (array)

List of links to text for this document (pdf, html, etc.). (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in links is an object with the following keys:

media_type (string)

IANA Media Type of document (required)

url (string)

URL to document (required)

text (string)

Text of the document

versions (array)

Versions of a bill’s text (First Printing, As Amended, etc.) (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in versions is an object with the following keys:

date (string, null)

Version posting date (required)

(must match format: ^[0-9]{4}(-[0-9]{2}){0,2}$)

type (string, null)

Type of version (required)

name (string)

Name of version (required)

links (array)

List of links for this version (pdf, html, etc.). (required, minItems: 0)

Each element in links is an object with the following keys:

media_type (string)

IANA Media Type of document (required)

url (string)

URL to document (required)

text (string)

Text of the document