Congressional Data Challenge

The Library of Congress is sponsoring a legislative data challenge to advance the discovery, use, and exploration of the collection of legislative information the Library offers to the nation and the world.

The Library is inviting submitters to use a variety of Congressional publications and data sets available on Congress.gov to create new meaning or tools to help members of Congress and the public explore it in new ways. This could take the form of interactive visualizations, mobile or desktop applications, a website, or other digital creation.

Submissions must be entered at Challenge.gov by April 2, 2018; please see the challenge rules for more information.

Per the challenge requirements, submitters must use at least one congressional data set from Congress.gov. Submitters may access the data directly from Congress.gov or though the Government Publishing Office, which, in partnership with the Library of Congress, the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, hosts bulk data from Congress.gov for download.

• About Congress.gov bulk data https://www.congress.gov/about/data
• User guide for bill status XML bulk data https://github.com/usgpo/bill-status/blob/master/BILLSTATUS-XML_User_User-Guide.md
• Bulk data for bills, bill status, and bill summaries
• https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLS
• https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS
• https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/bulkdata/BILLSUM
• See the GPO Developer Hub for further details https://www.govinfo.gov/developers
• Congress.gov search downloads https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2017/04/how-to-download-your-congress-gov-search-results
• Congressional Record on Congress.gov https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record

Submitters may also be interested in the following legislative and regulatory data sets:

• Government Publishing Office govinfo data sets:
• Bills, bill status, and bill summaries
• Code of Federal Regulations (Annual Edition)
• Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
• Federal Register
• United States Government Manual
• Privacy Act Issuances
• Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States
• House Rules and Manual
• Library of Congress digital collections. Information about machine-readable access is available on the LC Labs website. Note that not all Library digital collections are in the public domain.
• Office of the Law Revision Counsel U.S. Code
• Federal Register Bulk Data and API
• House of Representatives Document Repository
• House of Representatives Floor Proceedings
• House Roll Call Votes
• Senate.gov XML Sources
• Senate Roll Call Vote Lists and Votes
  • Vote Lists: (Sample: 111th Cong., 2nd Sess. )
  • Votes: (Sample: 111th Cong., 2nd Sess., Roll Call Vote No. 1 )