get_amendments
Retrieve U.S. Congressional amendment data from Congress.gov by specifying congress, amendment type, number, or date range to access legislative changes.
Instructions
Retrieve amendments from the Congress.gov API. Full documentation for this endpoint -> https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/AmendmentEndpoint.md
Args: congress: Congress number (e.g., 118 for 118th Congress) amendment_type: Type of amendment - hamdt: House Amendment - samdt: Senate Amendment - suamdt: Senate Unprinted Amendment amendment_number: Specific amendment number (requires congress and amendment_type) offset: Starting record (default 0) limit: Maximum records to return (max 250, default 20) from_datetime: Start timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format) to_datetime: End timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format)
Returns: dict: Amendment data from Congress.gov API
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| congress | No | ||
| amendment_type | No | ||
| amendment_number | No | ||
| offset | No | ||
| limit | No | ||
| from_datetime | No | ||
| to_datetime | No |
Implementation Reference
- server.py:99-158 (handler)The handler function for the 'get_amendments' MCP tool, decorated with @mcp.tool() for automatic registration with FastMCP. It constructs a URL and parameters for the Congress.gov amendments API endpoint and fetches the data using requests, handling errors gracefully.@mcp.tool() async def get_amendments( congress: int | None = None, amendment_type: str | None = None, amendment_number: int | None = None, offset: int = 0, limit: int = 20, from_datetime: str | None = None, to_datetime: str | None = None ) -> dict: """ Retrieve amendments from the Congress.gov API. Full documentation for this endpoint -> https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/AmendmentEndpoint.md Args: congress: Congress number (e.g., 118 for 118th Congress) amendment_type: Type of amendment - hamdt: House Amendment - samdt: Senate Amendment - suamdt: Senate Unprinted Amendment amendment_number: Specific amendment number (requires congress and amendment_type) offset: Starting record (default 0) limit: Maximum records to return (max 250, default 20) from_datetime: Start timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format) to_datetime: End timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format) Returns: dict: Amendment data from Congress.gov API """ base_url = "https://api.congress.gov/v3/amendment" url = base_url if congress: url += f"/{congress}" if amendment_type: url += f"/{amendment_type}" if amendment_number: url += f"/{amendment_number}" params = { "api_key": congress_gov_api_key, "format": "json", "offset": offset, "limit": min(limit, 250) # API max limit for amendments } if from_datetime: params["fromDateTime"] = from_datetime if to_datetime: params["toDateTime"] = to_datetime try: response = requests.get(url, params=params) response.raise_for_status() return response.json() except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e: return { "error": f"Failed to retrieve amendments: {str(e)}", "status_code": getattr(e.response, "status_code", None) }
- server.py:99-99 (registration)The @mcp.tool() decorator registers the get_amendments function as an MCP tool.@mcp.tool()
- server.py:100-126 (schema)Input schema defined by function parameters with type hints and detailed docstring describing arguments and return type.async def get_amendments( congress: int | None = None, amendment_type: str | None = None, amendment_number: int | None = None, offset: int = 0, limit: int = 20, from_datetime: str | None = None, to_datetime: str | None = None ) -> dict: """ Retrieve amendments from the Congress.gov API. Full documentation for this endpoint -> https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/AmendmentEndpoint.md Args: congress: Congress number (e.g., 118 for 118th Congress) amendment_type: Type of amendment - hamdt: House Amendment - samdt: Senate Amendment - suamdt: Senate Unprinted Amendment amendment_number: Specific amendment number (requires congress and amendment_type) offset: Starting record (default 0) limit: Maximum records to return (max 250, default 20) from_datetime: Start timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format) to_datetime: End timestamp (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ format) Returns: dict: Amendment data from Congress.gov API """