get_summaries
Retrieve bill summaries from Congress.gov to understand legislative activity. Filter by congress, bill type, date range, and sorting options for targeted research.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| congress | No | ||
| bill_type | No | ||
| offset | No | ||
| limit | No | ||
| from_datetime | No | ||
| to_datetime | No | ||
| sort | No | updateDate+desc |
Implementation Reference
- server.py:161-224 (handler)The handler function for the 'get_summaries' MCP tool. It is decorated with @mcp.tool(), which also serves as the registration. The function signature and docstring define the input schema. It makes an API request to Congress.gov /v3/summaries endpoint with constructed URL and parameters, handling 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:171-193 (schema)The docstring provides detailed input schema and description for the tool, used by FastMCP for tool schema generation.
""" 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 """