congressgov-mcp-server

Congress.gov Senate Nominations

congressgov_senate_nominations

Read-onlyIdempotent

Browse presidential nominations to federal positions and track the Senate confirmation process. Use 'list' to browse, 'get' for nomination detail, 'actions'/'committees'/'hearings' for confirmation pipeline data, or 'nominees' to retrieve individual appointees in a multi-nominee batch. Nominations use 'PN' (Presidential Nomination) numbering. Most nominations carry confirmation activity on the parent (e.g., PN1000); multi-part parents (e.g., PN851) carry no activity of their own — their actions, committees, hearings, and nominees live on partitioned children (PN851-1, PN851-2, …). 'get' on a parent that has no nominees array signals the partitioned form is needed for everything below it.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`limit`	No	Results per page (1-250).
`offset`	No	Pagination offset.
`ordinal`	No	Batch ordinal within a multi-nominee nomination. Each ordinal addresses a group of nominees; the 'nominees' operation returns every individual in that batch. Use 'get' first to see available ordinals on the nomination's `nominees` array (multi-part parents have no nominees array — use a partitioned form like '851-1' instead).
`congress`	Yes	Congress number.
`operation`	Yes	Which data to retrieve.
`nominationNumber`	No	Nomination number. Use the bare form (e.g. '1000') for nominations whose activity sits on the parent; use the partitioned form (e.g. '851-1') for sub-resources of a multi-part nomination. Required for detail operations.

Output Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`data`	No	Result rows. Per-tool item shape is rendered in the markdown body.
`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.
`nomination`	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.

Changed1 schema field changedAug 30, 2026

addedOutput schema / properties / nomination

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

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). Other values are possible when a failure originates below the handler.",
+          "examples": [
+            "not_found",
+            "rate_limited",
+            "invalid_request",
+            "upstream_error"
+          ],
+          "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 changedMay 30, 2026

removedOutput schema / description

Removed value: -"Detail-mode key 'nomination' carries: Nomination record for `get` (description, dates, nominees array, sub-resource counts); absent for `list` and sub-resources."

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: -"Nomination data from Congress.gov API."New value: +"Detail-mode key 'nomination' carries: Nomination record for `get` (description, dates, nominees array, sub-resource counts); absent for `list` and sub-resources."

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"
+}

Changed2 schema fields changedMay 21, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / nominationNumber / description

Previous value: -"Nomination number (e.g., '1064'). Required for detail operations."New value: +"Nomination number. Use the bare form (e.g. '1000') for nominations whose activity sits on the parent; use the partitioned form (e.g. '851-1') for sub-resources of a multi-part nomination. Required for detail operations."

changedInput schema / properties / ordinal / description

Previous value: -"Batch ordinal within a multi-nominee nomination. Each ordinal addresses a group of nominees; the 'nominees' operation returns every individual in that batch. Use 'get' first to see available ordinals on the nomination's `nominees` array."New value: +"Batch ordinal within a multi-nominee nomination. Each ordinal addresses a group of nominees; the 'nominees' operation returns every individual in that batch. Use 'get' first to see available ordinals on the nomination's `nominees` array (multi-part parents have no nominees array — use a partitioned form like '851-1' instead)."

Changed1 schema field changedApr 19, 2026

changedInput schema / properties / ordinal / description

Previous value: -"Position ordinal within a nomination (for multi-nominee nominations)."New value: +"Batch ordinal within a multi-nominee nomination. Each ordinal addresses a group of nominees; the 'nominees' operation returns every individual in that batch. Use 'get' first to see available ordinals on the nomination's `nominees` array."

First observedMar 28, 2026

TDQS

A4.7/5.0

Behavior5/5

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

Beyond the readOnly/idempotent/openWorld annotations, the description discloses crucial non-obvious behavior: parent nominations like PN1000 carry activity, while multi-part parents like PN851 carry none and require partitioned children. It even provides a diagnostic rule—'get on a parent that has no nominees array signals the partitioned form is needed'—which is exactly the kind of behavioral nuance an agent needs.

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?

The description is dense but every sentence earns its place: purpose, operation routing, numbering scheme, parent/child quirk, and a detection heuristic. The most important operational constraint is front-loaded with concrete examples, and there is no filler.

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

Completeness5/5

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

Given the tool's complexity—six operations, nuanced multi-part nominations, and partition behavior—the description covers everything needed to select and invoke it correctly. The presence of an output schema means return values need not be explained in prose, and the HTTP-like safety profile is covered by annotations.

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%, and the input schema already documents operation, nominationNumber, ordinal, congress, limit, and offset in detail. The description adds a useful decision procedure for choosing bare vs partitioned nomination numbers, but largely restates semantics already present in the schema, so the baseline of 3 is appropriate.

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?

The description opens with a specific verb and resource: 'Browse presidential nominations to federal positions and track the Senate confirmation process.' It then enumerates the exact operations and what each returns, making the tool's purpose unmistakable and clearly distinct from the unrelated congressional siblings.

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

Usage Guidelines5/5

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

It gives explicit operation-by-operation routing: 'Use list to browse, get for nomination detail, actions/committees/hearings for confirmation pipeline data, or nominees to retrieve individual appointees.' It also explains when to use bare versus partitioned nomination numbers, so an agent knows exactly how to select parameters for the right data.

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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