This page provides links to data collected by the Congress project, as well as links to other sites providing data and information on the U.S. Congress. If we missed something (and I'm sure we did), please e-mail us.
Congress Project Data:
Important Legislation
House Special Rules
Amendments Under Structured Rules
Senate Questions of Order
Links to Useful Sources on Congress:
Landmark Legislation and Congressional Bill Data
Additional Data on the U.S. Congress
Congressional Procedure Links
Congressional Debates and CRS Reports
Information on Members of Congress and Elections
Additional Recommended Sources and Links
Important Legislation
Title: "Important Legislation, 45th (1877-1879) - 113th (2013-2014) Congresses"
Description: Collected by the Congress Project, this data set includes a list of all important legislation 45th (1877-1879) - 113th (2013-2014) Congresses. The data was originally compiled for our roll call generating project. It combines several lists of “landmark legislation” compiled by scholars with several routine appropriation bills considered in each Congress. The decision to focus on important enactments was motivated by several factors, which are discussed in greater detail in Appendix A of this working paper. A discussion of the sourcing can also be found in the working paper. Data on all amendments (recorded and unrecorded) will be posted soon and more information on the coding process and amendment data can be found at https://www.tonymadonna.com/uga-congress-project/.
Files:
Data (Excel)
Codebook
Related Papers:
Lynch, Michael S. and Anthony Madonna. 2017. "Broken Record: Causes and Consequences of the Changing Roll Call Voting Record in the U.S. Congress." Unpublished Manuscript.
Above: Longstanding Rules Committee Chairman Howard "Judge" Smith (D-VA).
House Special Rules
Title: "House Rules, 59th (1905-1907) - 115th (2017-2018) Congresses"
Description: Collected by the Congress Project, this data set includes information on all House resolutions that provided special rules considered on the chamber floor between the 59th and 115th congresses. This includes the text, rule type and bill number for 7,329 resolutions. Presented at the resolution-level, it includes 8,027 special rules. The codebook and aggregate rule type data are presented in separate tabs. Additional information and variables are available via request.
Files:
Data and Codebook (Excel)
Related Papers:
Lynch, Michael S., Anthony J. Madonna, and Jason M. Roberts. 2016. “The Cost of Majority-Party Bias: Amending Activity under Structured Rules.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, 41(3): 633-655.
Lynch, Michael S., Anthony J. Madonna, and Allison Vick. 2019. "The Erosion of “Regular Order” in the U.S. House: A Historical Examination of Special Rules." Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.
Amendments Under Structured Rules
Title: "Amendments Proposed Under Structured Rules in the House, 109th (2005-2006) - 114th (2015-2016) Congresses"
Description: Collected by Anthony Madonna, Michael Lynch and Jason Roberts, this data set includes all House amendments proposed for consideration under structured rules from the 109th (2005-2006) to the 114th (2015-2016) congresses. Data was taken directly from the House Rules Committee website. Presented in separate tabs for each congress, it includes information on 16,929 proposed amendments. This includes data on floor consideration for the 109th – 111th congresses, as well as partial amendment data from the 108th Congress, and amendments proposed under all rules considered through the first session of the 115th Congress.
Files:
Data (Excel)
Related Papers:
Lynch, Michael S., Anthony J. Madonna, and Jason M. Roberts. 2016. “The Cost of Majority-Party Bias: Amending Activity under Structured Rules.” Legislative Studies Quarterly, 41(3): 633-655.
Above: Former Senate Parliamentarian Floyd Riddick
Senate Questions of Order
Title: "Precedent-Establishing Roll Call Votes in the U.S. Senate, 1st (1789-1791) - 106th (1999-2001) Congresses"
Description: Collected by Anthony Madonna, this data set includes information on any roll call votes cast on questions of order or rulings of the Chair in the U.S. Senate from the 1st (1789-1791) through 106th (1999-2001) Congresses. This includes information on how the question was dispensed, who ruled on the question of order, who raised the question of order, the substance of the question and information on the senator who appealed the ruling.
Files:
Data (Excel)
Codebook
Related Papers:
Lynch, Michael S., Anthony J. Madonna, Mark E. Owens and Ryan Williamson. “The Vice President in the U.S. Senate: Examining the Consequences of Institutional Design.” Forthcoming, Congress & the Presidency.
Lynch, Michael S., Anthony J. Madonna, Mark E. Owens and Ryan Williamson. “Procedural Uncertainty, the Parliamentarian, and Questions of Order in the United States Senate.” Forthcoming, Social Science Quarterly.
Congressional Roll Call Votes and Ideology Data
Voteview: Maintained by Professor Jeffrey Lewis, Voteview provides data on all congressional roll call votes throughout congressional history. It also provides a feature that allows members to view every roll call on a liberal-conservative map. Additional data on member ideology and presidential positions on roll calls.
Voteview Legacy Content: Original Voteview data by Professor Keith Poole. It includes, among other things, cutting lines on all votes and provides a single file with Democrat and Republican voting splits in both chambers from the 35th to 113th congresses.
PIPC: The Political Institutions and Public Choice roll call database was originally started by Professor David Rohde and is currently maintained by Prof. Mike Crespin. It provides roll call vote data as well as “vote type” codes (i.e. final passage, amendment votes, procedural votes) from the 83rd House and 91st Senate on. It is updated nightly.
DIME: Maintained by Prof. Adam Bonica, the Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections includes data on political contributions. It provides ideological mapping of political elites using those contributions.
Above: The Philip H. Alston Jr. Distinguished Chair Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia, Professor Keith T. Poole.
Landmark Legislation and Congressional Bill Data
Congressional Bills Project: The Congressional Bills Project provides information on all bills introduced in the U.S. Congress from 1947 to 2015. Maintained by Prof. John Wilkerson, the data set provides bill numbers, sponsor information, titles and descriptions for over 400,000 bills.
Comparative Agendas Project: Maintained by Prof. Bryan Jones, the U.S. Policy Agendas project provides data on all roll call votes, congressional bills, public laws and related bills as mentioned in the Congressional Quarterly Almanac. The website also provides a rich source for legislative agendas in the U.S. and beyond, as well as information on legislative topics and content.
Legislative Significance: Prof. Josh Clinton’s data ranking the significance of legislation from 1877-1994. It includes the rank of the bill, the bill number, page length, whether it was referred to a conference committee, committees it was referred to and a description.
Divided We Govern Data: Professor David Mayhew’s website. It includes data and information on his measure of significant legislation, 1947-2018.
GovTrack: GovTrack provides data on members of Congress, bills and amendments, as well as providing numerous other sources of information on the U.S. Congress. Maintained by Dr. Joshua Tauberer, GovTrack.us can be supported via Patreon.
Additional Data on the U.S. Congress
Charles Stewart's Congressional Data Page: Maintained by Prof. Charles Stewart, this website provides links to a wide range of datasets related to the U.S. Congress. This includes data on committee requests, candidate quality, and interest group scores. Perhaps most prominently, it includes data on the membership of Congressional Committees in the House and the Senate from the first through current congresses.
Center for Effective Lawmaking: The Center for Effective Lawmaking provides data on legislative effectiveness for each member of the House and the Senate from the 93rd Congress to today. Maintained by Professors Craig Volden and Alan Wiseman, it includes biographical data on each member, as well as an effectiveness score that weighs the ability of each member to shepherd their bills through the legislative process.
DCinbox: Established and maintained by Prof. Lindsey Cormack, DCinbox includes information on nearly 90,000 newsletters sent by members of the U.S. House and Senate.
Legistorm: Legistorm provides information on legislative staff. This includes a listing of staffers per member and biographical information.
Database of Historical Congressional Statistics: The database on historical congressional statistics includes information on roll calls, member biographical information and bill and issue information.
Data on House Rules: Maintained by Prof. Jed Stiglitz, this database includes information on all House rules from the 98th to the 109th congresses. Additional rules data can be found in our House Special Rules data.
Vital Statistics on Congress: Updated in May 2018 by Prof. Molly Reynolds, Vital Statistics on Congress provides a wide range of aggregate statistical data on Congress. Originally compiled in 1980, it is maintained by Reynold and Professors Thomas Mann, Normal J. Ornstein and Michael Malbin. The data include background data on members, procedures employed, bills considered and passed and staff.
"I never did see or converse with so weak and imbecile a man as Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States." - Senator Willard Saulsbury (D-DE) (above), 1863. Shortly afterwards, an intoxicated Saulsbury would pull a pistol on the Senate sergeant-at-arms after being called to order.
Congressional Procedure Links
The Great Anchor: Prof. James Wallner’s excellent website on Congress, including his blog on congressional procedure. It also provides links to his writing and additional information and sources on the U.S. Congress.
Glossary Terms (U.S. Senate): The U.S. Senate’s website provides a useful reference guide describing key congressional terms.
House.gov: The House of Representatives website is an excellent source for legislative information. It also provides a nice walkthrough of the legislative process linked here.
Riddick’s Senate Procedure: Named after former Senate parliamentarian Floyd Riddick, Riddick’s Senate Procedure provides contemporary precedents and practices for the U.S. Senate. Data on Senate precedents can be found on our data tab.
House Rules: Rules of the House of Representatives for the 115th Congress. This link also provides the Constitution, and Jefferson Manual.
House Rules Bootcamp: The House Rules committee’s website provides a basic training for parliamentary process in the House.
Congressional Procedures (GovTrack): GovTrack’s information on how bills become laws, congressional procedures and norms.
Congressional Debates and CRS Reports
Congress.gov: The official website for U.S. federal legislative information, congress.gov is maintained by the Library of Congress. It provides information on legislation, amendments and members of Congress from the 93rd Congress on. It also provides links to the Congressional Record from the 101st Congress to today.
A Century of Lawmaking: Also maintained by the Library of Congress, this website provides searchable text from the Congressional Record and its precursors, the Congressional Globe, Register of Debates and Annals of Congress from 1774 to 1875. It provides additional on information on legislation and Farrand’s Records, among other things.
A Century of Lawmaking:Congressional Record (Bound Edition): In 2018, the G.P.O. completed a scanning of the entire Congressional Record and made it available here.
The Federation of American Scientists: The Congressional Research Service (or CRS) conducts research and analysis for Congress on a wide range of issues, bills and procedures. While Congress has directed CRS to not publicize their reports, a number of websites, including the Federation of American Scientists, have published a wide range of reports.
Every CRS Report: Maintained by Daniel Schuman, Every CRS Report has data on over 14,000 reports. It is searchable and also provides a very nice discussion of “what a CRS report is.”
StanIsStan: Maintained by Stan Bach, one of the foremost expects on legislative process and procedure at CRS, this website provides a large number of his writings on a wide variety of issues.
Information on Members of Congress and Elections
Bioguide: A searchable database that provides information on all members who have served in the U.S. Congress. Additional information can be found online in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005.
Political Graveyard: Information on all U.S. politicians. It includes background material, office, birth and death information.
BallotPedia: An online encyclopedia on American politics and elections. It is particularly useful for state and local elections.
Open Secrets: Data on federal campaign contributions and lobbying data.
Additional Recommended Sources and Links
Legbranch: Established and maintained by Professors Lee Drutman and Kevin Kosar, Legbranch is the website of the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group. It provides links to research and working papers, a blog on congressional politics and assorted resources like information sheets on committees and information on member wealth.
Senate Histories: The Senate’s website provides a wide array of excellent information, including a selection of stories drafted by Senate historians. Organized by time period, these stories are exceptionally well done and you will find many links to them throughout this website.
www.MattGlassman.com: Prof. Matt Glassman’s excellent blog on the U.S. Congress and all things politics. He hosts a podcast on congressional politics with Prof. Josh Huder titled “Congress, Two Beers In” that is worth a subscription.
The Founder’s Constitution: Searchable information on the U.S. Constitution.
The Congressional Institute: Founded in 1987, the Congressional Institute provides educational information about Congress. This includes information on jobs, living in DC and resources on congressional procedure.
The American Presidency Project: Data on presidential agenda setting, executive orders, vetoes and presidential relations with Congress.
IRB Commissioner Data: Prof. David Nixon’s data on appointments to the fifteen federal independent agencies from 1887-2000.
Congressional Sessions: Information on the timing of congressional sessions.