get_summaries
Retrieve bill summaries from the Congress.gov API to track legislative activity by congress, bill type, and date range.
Instructions
Retrieve bill summaries from the Congress.gov API. Full documentation for this endpoint -> https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/SummariesEndpoint.md
Args: congress: Congress number (e.g., 118 for 118th Congress) bill_type: Type of bill - hr: House of Representatives Bill - s: Senate Bill - hjres: House Joint Resolution - sjres: Senate Joint Resolution - hconres: House Concurrent Resolution - sconres: Senate Concurrent Resolution - hres: House Simple Resolution - sres: Senate Simple Resolution 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) sort: Sort order ('updateDate+asc' or 'updateDate+desc')
Returns: dict: Summary data from Congress.gov API
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| bill_type | No | ||
| congress | No | ||
| from_datetime | No | ||
| limit | No | ||
| offset | No | ||
| sort | No | updateDate+desc | |
| to_datetime | No |
Implementation Reference
- server.py:161-224 (handler)The primary handler implementation for the 'get_summaries' MCP tool. Decorated with @mcp.tool() for registration. Includes input schema via type hints and comprehensive docstring. Fetches bill summaries from Congress.gov API using requests, constructs URL and params based on inputs, handles errors.@mcp.tool() async def get_summaries( congress: int | None = None, bill_type: str | None = None, offset: int = 0, limit: int = 20, from_datetime: str | None = None, to_datetime: str | None = None, sort: str = "updateDate+desc" ) -> dict: """ Retrieve bill summaries from the Congress.gov API. Full documentation for this endpoint -> https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/SummariesEndpoint.md Args: congress: Congress number (e.g., 118 for 118th Congress) bill_type: Type of bill - hr: House of Representatives Bill - s: Senate Bill - hjres: House Joint Resolution - sjres: Senate Joint Resolution - hconres: House Concurrent Resolution - sconres: Senate Concurrent Resolution - hres: House Simple Resolution - sres: Senate Simple Resolution 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) sort: Sort order ('updateDate+asc' or 'updateDate+desc') Returns: dict: Summary data from Congress.gov API """ base_url = "https://api.congress.gov/v3/summaries" url = base_url if congress: url += f"/{congress}" if bill_type: url += f"/{bill_type}" params = { "api_key": congress_gov_api_key, "format": "json", "offset": offset, "limit": min(limit, 250), # API max limit for summaries "sort": sort } 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 summaries: {str(e)}", "status_code": getattr(e.response, "status_code", None) }
- server.py:161-161 (registration)The @mcp.tool() decorator registers the get_summaries function as an MCP tool.@mcp.tool()
- server.py:162-170 (schema)Input schema defined by function parameters with type hints and defaults. Output is dict. Detailed arg descriptions in docstring for MCP schema generation.async def get_summaries( congress: int | None = None, bill_type: str | None = None, offset: int = 0, limit: int = 20, from_datetime: str | None = None, to_datetime: str | None = None, sort: str = "updateDate+desc" ) -> dict: