congressgov-mcp-server

Congress.gov Committee Reports

congressgov_committee_reports

Read-onlyIdempotent

Browse and retrieve committee reports from Congress.gov — reports accompany legislation reported out of committee and explain the bill's purpose, committee amendments, dissenting views, and the committee vote. Report types are 'hrpt' (House), 'srpt' (Senate), and 'erpt' (Executive). 'text' lists the published format URLs; 'content' then reads the report's actual text, a bounded character window at a time.

Input Schema

Name	Required	Description	Default
`limit`	No	Results per page (1-250).
`format`	No	Document format for 'content'. 'text' is GPO's Formatted Text — plain, pre-formatted print output, published for every document checked. 'xml' prefers United States Legislative Markup and falls back to Formatted XML; it exists on some bill text versions and on no committee report or Congressional Record article. PDF is not retrieved — read one at the format URLs 'text'/'articles' return.	text
`offset`	No	Pagination offset.
`congress`	Yes	Congress number.
`operation`	Yes	Which data to retrieve.
`reportType`	No	Report type. Required for get, text, and content operations.
`reportNumber`	No	Committee report number. Required for get, text, and content operations.
`characterLimit`	No	Maximum characters to return for 'content' (1-100000). Legislative documents run past a million characters, so a full bill takes several windows.
`characterOffset`	No	First character to return for 'content', 0-based. Offsets are exact and are never snapped to a section or paragraph break, so feeding the response's nextOffset back walks the whole document with every character returned exactly once.

Output Schema

Name	Required	Description
`data`	No	Result rows. Per-tool item shape is rendered in the markdown body.
`text`	No	Dynamic upstream JSON records.
`error`	No	Present when the call failed. Absent on success.
`notice`	No	Guidance when results are empty, a page is past the end, or a caveat applies.
`report`	No	Dynamic upstream JSON record.
`content`	No	Dynamic upstream JSON record.
`pagination`	No	Pagination metadata: total count and next offset.
`totalCount`	No	Total results across all pages.
`effectiveQuery`	No	The browse scope and applied filters.

Schema Changelog

Changes observed during successful MCP inspections.

Changed2 schema fields changedNov 2, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: A process-local attempt budget or the shared upstream credential/IP quota was reached; upstream hourly limits vary and DEMO_KEY also has a daily quota. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `upstream_timeout`: The Congress.gov request deadline expired or the upstream returned an HTTP timeout response. `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of every text the call would window — the document on 'content', or every returned row's summary text on 'summaries' — so the window would be empty. `incompatible_identity`: A list operation carries an entity identifier that only a detail operation uses. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: A process-local attempt budget or the shared upstream credential/IP quota was reached; upstream hourly limits vary and DEMO_KEY also has a daily quota. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `api_key_rejected`: The api.data.gov gateway rejected the server's configured CONGRESS_API_KEY (missing, invalid, disabled, unauthorized, or unverified); the gateway code is in data.upstreamCode. No change to the call's arguments can fix it. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status) or could not be reached, or the Senate LIS feed failed (5xx, a timeout, or a senate.gov HTTP 403 refusal, which carries retryable: false). `upstream_timeout`: A Congress.gov request or a congress.gov document fetch timed out or returned an HTTP timeout response, or the call's upstream requests could not finish inside its 50-second budget. `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of every text the call would window — the document on 'content', or every returned row's summary text on 'summaries' — so the window would be empty. `incompatible_identity`: A list operation carries an entity identifier that only a detail operation uses. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples

Previous value: -[
-  "not_found",
-  "rate_limited",
-  "invalid_request",
-  "upstream_error",
-  "upstream_timeout",
-  "document_unavailable",
-  "format_unavailable",
-  "document_fetch_failed",
-  "document_too_large",
-  "offset_past_end",
-  "incompatible_identity"
-]New value: +[
+  "not_found",
+  "rate_limited",
+  "invalid_request",
+  "api_key_rejected",
+  "upstream_error",
+  "upstream_timeout",
+  "document_unavailable",
+  "format_unavailable",
+  "document_fetch_failed",
+  "document_too_large",
+  "offset_past_end",
+  "incompatible_identity"
+]

Changed2 schema fields changedOct 13, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: The Congress.gov API rate limit (5,000 requests/hour per key) was exceeded. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of every text the call would window — the document on 'content', or every returned row's summary text on 'summaries' — so the window would be empty. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: A process-local attempt budget or the shared upstream credential/IP quota was reached; upstream hourly limits vary and DEMO_KEY also has a daily quota. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `upstream_timeout`: The Congress.gov request deadline expired or the upstream returned an HTTP timeout response. `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of every text the call would window — the document on 'content', or every returned row's summary text on 'summaries' — so the window would be empty. `incompatible_identity`: A list operation carries an entity identifier that only a detail operation uses. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / examples

Previous value: -[
-  "not_found",
-  "rate_limited",
-  "invalid_request",
-  "upstream_error",
-  "document_unavailable",
-  "format_unavailable",
-  "document_fetch_failed",
-  "document_too_large",
-  "offset_past_end"
-]New value: +[
+  "not_found",
+  "rate_limited",
+  "invalid_request",
+  "upstream_error",
+  "upstream_timeout",
+  "document_unavailable",
+  "format_unavailable",
+  "document_fetch_failed",
+  "document_too_large",
+  "offset_past_end",
+  "incompatible_identity"
+]

Changed1 schema field changedSep 22, 2026

changedOutput schema / properties / error / properties / data / properties / reason / description

Previous value: -"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: The Congress.gov API rate limit (5,000 requests/hour per key) was exceeded. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of the document, so the window would be empty. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."New value: +"Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: The Congress.gov API rate limit (5,000 requests/hour per key) was exceeded. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of every text the call would window — the document on 'content', or every returned row's summary text on 'summaries' — so the window would be empty. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler."

Changed3 schema fields changedAug 30, 2026

addedOutput schema / properties / content

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {},
+  "description": "Dynamic upstream JSON record.",
+  "properties": {},
+  "type": "object"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / report

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {},
+  "description": "Dynamic upstream JSON record.",
+  "properties": {},
+  "type": "object"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / text

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Dynamic upstream JSON records.",
+  "items": {
+    "additionalProperties": {},
+    "description": "Dynamic upstream JSON record.",
+    "properties": {},
+    "type": "object"
+  },
+  "type": "array"
+}

Changed6 schema fields changedAug 25, 2026

changedInput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedInput schema / additionalProperties
```
Added value: +false
```

changedOutput schema / $schema

Previous value: -"http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema#"New value: +"https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema"

addedOutput schema / anyOf

Added value: +[
+  {
+    "not": {
+      "required": [
+        "error"
+      ]
+    },
+    "required": [
+      "effectiveQuery",
+      "totalCount"
+    ]
+  },
+  {
+    "required": [
+      "error"
+    ]
+  }
+]

addedOutput schema / properties / error

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": {},
+  "description": "Present when the call failed. Absent on success.",
+  "properties": {
+    "code": {
+      "description": "JSON-RPC error code for this failure.",
+      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+      "minimum": -9007199254740991,
+      "type": "integer"
+    },
+    "data": {
+      "additionalProperties": {},
+      "properties": {
+        "reason": {
+          "description": "Machine-readable failure mode. Declared by this tool: `not_found`: A requested bill, member, committee, report, vote, or nomination does not exist in Congress.gov. `rate_limited`: The Congress.gov API rate limit (5,000 requests/hour per key) was exceeded. `invalid_request`: Congress.gov rejected the request as malformed — a bad date range or an identifier with an unexpected shape. `upstream_error`: Congress.gov returned an unexpected error (5xx or another non-2xx status). `document_unavailable`: The 'content' selection resolves to no retrievable document — the text version or article index is past the end of the list, the record publishes no formats at all, or Congress.gov does not hold the file its own metadata names. `format_unavailable`: The document exists but publishes nothing in the requested 'format' — some text versions and committee reports ship PDF only, and no Congressional Record article publishes XML. `document_fetch_failed`: www.congress.gov did not return a readable document — a non-2xx status, a network failure, an empty body, or a content type that is not text or XML. `document_too_large`: The document is larger than the byte ceiling this server retrieves, so no character window can be served from it. `offset_past_end`: characterOffset is at or beyond the last character of the document, so the window would be empty. Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
+          "examples": [
+            "not_found",
+            "rate_limited",
+            "invalid_request",
+            "upstream_error",
+            "document_unavailable",
+            "format_unavailable",
+            "document_fetch_failed",
+            "document_too_large",
+            "offset_past_end"
+          ],
+          "type": "string"
+        },
+        "recovery": {
+          "additionalProperties": {},
+          "description": "Actionable next step for the caller.",
+          "properties": {
+            "hint": {
+              "type": "string"
+            }
+          },
+          "required": [
+            "hint"
+          ],
+          "type": "object"
+        },
+        "retryable": {
+          "description": "Whether retrying may succeed.",
+          "type": "boolean"
+        }
+      },
+      "type": "object"
+    },
+    "message": {
+      "description": "Human-readable description of what went wrong.",
+      "type": "string"
+    }
+  },
+  "required": [
+    "code",
+    "message"
+  ],
+  "type": "object"
+}

removedOutput schema / required

Removed value: -[
-  "effectiveQuery",
-  "totalCount"
-]

Changed6 schema fields changedAug 17, 2026

addedInput schema / properties / characterLimit

Added value: +{
+  "default": 25000,
+  "description": "Maximum characters to return for 'content' (1-100000). Legislative documents run past a million characters, so a full bill takes several windows.",
+  "maximum": 100000,
+  "minimum": 1,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / characterOffset

Added value: +{
+  "default": 0,
+  "description": "First character to return for 'content', 0-based. Offsets are exact and are never snapped to a section or paragraph break, so feeding the response's nextOffset back walks the whole document with every character returned exactly once.",
+  "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+  "minimum": 0,
+  "type": "integer"
+}

addedInput schema / properties / format

Added value: +{
+  "default": "text",
+  "description": "Document format for 'content'. 'text' is GPO's Formatted Text — plain, pre-formatted print output, published for every document checked. 'xml' prefers United States Legislative Markup and falls back to Formatted XML; it exists on some bill text versions and on no committee report or Congressional Record article. PDF is not retrieved — read one at the format URLs 'text'/'articles' return.",
+  "enum": [
+    "text",
+    "xml"
+  ],
+  "type": "string"
+}

changedInput schema / properties / operation / enum

Previous value: -[
-  "list",
-  "get",
-  "text"
-]New value: +[
+  "list",
+  "get",
+  "text",
+  "content"
+]

changedInput schema / properties / reportNumber / description

Previous value: -"Committee report number. Required for get and text operations."New value: +"Committee report number. Required for get, text, and content operations."

changedInput schema / properties / reportType / description

Previous value: -"Report type. Required for get and text operations."New value: +"Report type. Required for get, text, and content operations."

Changed6 schema fields changedMay 30, 2026

removedOutput schema / description

Removed value: -"Detail-mode key 'report' carries: the committee report (citation, title, committees, associated bill); for `text`, an alternative key 'text' carries an array of {type, url} format links."

addedOutput schema / properties / effectiveQuery

Added value: +{
+  "description": "The browse scope and applied filters.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / notice

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Guidance when results are empty, a page is past the end, or a caveat applies.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

removedOutput schema / properties / query

Removed value: -{
-  "description": "Echo of the applied filters for list-mode queries. Rendered as the first line of the response.",
-  "type": "string"
-}

addedOutput schema / properties / totalCount

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Total results across all pages.",
+  "type": "number"
+}

addedOutput schema / required

Added value: +[
+  "effectiveQuery",
+  "totalCount"
+]

Changed4 schema fields changedMay 21, 2026

changedOutput schema / description

Previous value: -"Committee report data from Congress.gov API."New value: +"Detail-mode key 'report' carries: the committee report (citation, title, committees, associated bill); for `text`, an alternative key 'text' carries an array of {type, url} format links."

addedOutput schema / properties / data

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Result rows. Per-tool item shape is rendered in the markdown body.",
+  "items": {
+    "additionalProperties": {},
+    "description": "Upstream JSON record. Per-tool item shape is rendered in the markdown body.",
+    "properties": {},
+    "type": "object"
+  },
+  "type": "array"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / pagination

Added value: +{
+  "additionalProperties": false,
+  "description": "Pagination metadata: total count and next offset.",
+  "properties": {
+    "count": {
+      "description": "Total result count across all pages.",
+      "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+      "minimum": 0,
+      "type": "integer"
+    },
+    "nextOffset": {
+      "anyOf": [
+        {
+          "maximum": 9007199254740991,
+          "minimum": 0,
+          "type": "integer"
+        },
+        {
+          "type": "null"
+        }
+      ],
+      "description": "Offset to pass for the next page, or null when there are no more pages."
+    }
+  },
+  "required": [
+    "count"
+  ],
+  "type": "object"
+}

addedOutput schema / properties / query

Added value: +{
+  "description": "Echo of the applied filters for list-mode queries. Rendered as the first line of the response.",
+  "type": "string"
+}

First observedMar 28, 2026

TDQS

A4.2/5.0

Behavior4/5

Does the description disclose side effects, auth requirements, rate limits, or destructive behavior?

Annotations already declare readOnlyHint, idempotentHint, and openWorldHint, so the safety profile is covered. The description adds genuine behavioral context beyond that: the text→content two-step workflow and the fact that content returns a bounded character window rather than the whole document. It stops short of noting rate limits or upstream coverage gaps, but the incremental value is real.

Agents need to know what a tool does to the world before calling it. Descriptions should go beyond structured annotations to explain consequences.

Conciseness5/5

Is the description appropriately sized, front-loaded, and free of redundancy?

Three sentences, all load-bearing: the first defines the resource, the second enumerates the type codes, the third explains the two-step read workflow. Nothing is repeated from the schema and the purpose is front-loaded.

Shorter descriptions cost fewer tokens and are easier for agents to parse. Every sentence should earn its place.

Completeness4/5

Given the tool's complexity, does the description cover enough for an agent to succeed on first attempt?

With an output schema present, return values need not be explained, and annotations cover safety. The description supplies the domain framing and the paging workflow an agent needs to sequence calls correctly. A minor gap is that it never states that reportType and reportNumber are the required keys for get/text/content, leaving that to the schema.

Complex tools with many parameters or behaviors need more documentation. Simple tools need less. This dimension scales expectations accordingly.

Parameters3/5

Does the description clarify parameter syntax, constraints, interactions, or defaults beyond what the schema provides?

Schema description coverage is 100%, so every parameter — including format, characterLimit, and characterOffset — is already documented in the schema. The description reinforces the text/content distinction and names the report types, but adds no syntax or constraints beyond what the schema states, so baseline 3 applies.

Input schemas describe structure but not intent. Descriptions should explain non-obvious parameter relationships and valid value ranges.

Purpose5/5

Does the description clearly state what the tool does and how it differs from similar tools?

States a specific verb and resource ('Browse and retrieve committee reports from Congress.gov') and then defines what those reports are — accompanying legislation out of committee, with purpose, amendments, dissenting views, and vote. The three report-type codes and the text/content split make it distinguishable from siblings like congressgov_crs_reports without opening either schema.

Agents choose between tools based on descriptions. A clear purpose with a specific verb and resource helps agents select the right tool.

Usage Guidelines4/5

Does the description explain when to use this tool, when not to, or what alternatives exist?

Gives a clear operational rule for choosing between the 'text' and 'content' operations ('text' lists the published format URLs; 'content' then reads the report's actual text). It does not, however, say when to reach for this tool versus congressgov_crs_reports or congressgov_bill_summaries, nor does it state prerequisites such as needing a reportType/reportNumber pair first.

Agents often have multiple tools that could apply. Explicit usage guidance like "use X instead of Y when Z" prevents misuse.

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Congress.gov Committee Reports

Input Schema

Output Schema

Schema Changelog

TDQS

Glama MCP Gateway

Resources