The beta version of the site contains legislation from the 107th Congress (2001) to the present, member profiles from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the present, and some member profiles from the 80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972).

Congress.gov is in an initial beta phase with plans to transform the Library of Congress's existing congressional information system into a modern, durable and user-friendly resource. Eventually, it will incorporate all of the information available on THOMAS.gov. (To compare the scope of legislative information on THOMAS.gov versus the scope of legislative information on the beta site, see Coverage Dates for Legislative Information). Although THOMAS.gov has been updated multiple times since its release in 1995, the foundation of the system can no longer support the capabilities today's users have come to expect. The goal is to make the site user- friendly with a strong technical infrastructure.

What's new in Congress.gov?

Improved Searching

  • Simultaneously search all content across all available years
  • Ability to narrow and refine search results
  • Easier identification of bill progress/status
  • Effective display for mobile devices
  • Maintenance of existing popular THOMAS.gov features like links to House and Senate floor video, top searched bills, and the save/share feature

User-Friendly Design

  • Pages are highly scannable, with easy-to-read text
  • Consistent, meaningful, and permanent URLs
  • Wider and cleaner pages with better displays of search results
  • Responsive design for mobile devices

Legislation

Each piece of legislation has a landing page with tabs to help users find key information for the bill. Tabs take users to the following information: summary, major actions, titles, amendments, cosponsors, committees, and related bills.

The actions, amendments and cosponsors information for a bill can be filtered by useful criteria such as major actions, votes, amendment status, and cosponsor state and party.

Go to the Legislation page

The Legislative Process

Designed for the general public, this section contains fun and educational videos that provide a basic outline of the steps involved in the legislative process. These videos include: overview of the legislative process; introduction and referral of a bill; committee consideration; calendars and scheduling; House floor; Senate Floor; executive business in the Senate; bicameral resolution; and presidential action.

Learn about The Legislative Process

Profiles of Members of Congress (Information not on THOMAS.gov)

All Members since 1973 and some members from 1947-1972 can be filtered by state, Congress, House or Senate, party, or Members currently serving.

Member landing pages include a picture (when available), biography, years and Congresses served, the Member's state and district (Representatives only), party history, Member website link, and other key data.

Additionally, a display of the legislation sponsored or cosponsored follows each Member's landing page.

See Member profiles

What is the timeline for Congress.gov?

The beta site is the first step in a phased process that will incorporate all of the information available on THOMAS.gov.

September 2012

The initial launch included bill status and summary, as well as bill text files from the 107th Congress (2001) to the present, member profiles from the 93rd Congress (1973) to the present, and some member profiles from the 80th through the 92nd Congresses (1947 to 1972).

October 2012

Minor updates were made to the system that included:

  • A new citation normalizing filter that recognizes variants of citations for bill number searching (e.g., H.R.1, HR1, H.R. 1, HR 1);
  • The addition of a "status of amendment" facet to the amendment tabs on legislative and amendment detail pages;
  • Inclusion of glossary term links in the transcripts for all legislative process videos; and
  • Introducing Congress.gov trailer published.

November 2012

Highlights of minor updates include:

  • Member profiles search order tuning;
  • Clarification of “Party history” for Members who have changed party;
  • Leadership designations on Member profile pages where appropriate;  
  • Fine-tune display of website and contact information for current Members;
  • Retention of user source selection when searching on legislation or Member landing pages;
  • Improvement of presentation of “more” page for sponsor/cosponsor; and
  • Release of three additional legislative process videos - Introduction and Referral of Bills, Committee Consideration, and Calendar and Scheduling. 

 

Future Plans

Additional data will be incorporated over time. The Congressional Record will be included next, followed by other data, such as the Congressional Record Index, Congressional reports, House and Senate Calendars, nominations, treaties, and communications.

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