Legislative Documents in XML at the United States House of Representatives
Legislative Documents in XML at the United States House of Representatives
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 Features
Bills, Resolutions, and Amendments

Roll Call Votes
Biographical Directory
Committee Report
 Additional Resources
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 Activities Elsewhere
Minnesota


Questions or comments.
Welcome
The purpose of this website is to provide information about the ongoing work of the U.S. House of Representatives in relation to the eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

Under the direction of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the House Committee on Administration, the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of the House have worked together with the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office to create Document Type Definition files (DTDs) for use in the creation of legislative documents using XML.

As this is an ongoing project, it is important to note that the DTDs and examples presented here have not been finalized and may be extended over time. Roll Call Votes are currently available in XML at the Office of the Clerk's website and legislation prepared in XML (starting in January 2004) is available at thomas.loc.gov.

Drafting Legislation Using XML at the U.S. House of Representatives provides additional information about the history of drafting legislation at the House and current efforts to create an authoring application.

The U.S. House participated in the World e-Parliament Conference 2008. A copy of the presentation made at the conference is available here.

The U.S. House is participating in the World e-Parliament Conference 2012. A copy of the presentation slides are available here.
Notice
The document type definitions (DTDs) presented on this site were developed at the U.S. House of Representatives by employees of the Federal Government in the course of their official duties. Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, these DTDs are not subject to copyright protection and are in the public domain. These DTDs are in draft form. The U.S. House of Representatives assumes no responsibility whatsoever for their use by other parties, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about their quality, reliability, or any other characteristic. These DTDs can be redistributed and/or modified freely provided that any derivative works bear some notice that they are derived from it, and any modified versions bear some notice that they have been modified.
Bills, Resolutions, and Amendments
Legislative Document Type Definitions, Schemas, and Samples  Back

  • Bills
  • Resolutions
  • Amendments
  • Element Descriptions
  • Attribute Descriptions


    Features and Additional Legislative Resources  Back

  • Drafting Legislation with XML
  • How Our Laws Are Made: Consideration and Debate
  • The Legislative Process
  • Legislative Information
  • Legislative Resources
  • 108th Congress Files
  • 109th Congress Files
  • 110th Congress Files
  • 111th Congress Files
  • 112th Congress Files

    DTD Schema Root Element
    Bills DTD Bills XSD bill
    Resolutions DTD Resolutions XSD resolution
    Amendment DTD Amendment XSD amendment-doc

    Element Descriptions and Content Models for Bills, Resolutions, and Amendments

    account
    action
    action-date
    action-desc
    action-instruction
    act-name
    added-phrase
    after-quoted-block
    amendment
    amendment-block
    amendment-body
    amendment-doc
    amendment-form
    amendment-instruction
    amend-num
    appropriations-para
    associated-doc
    attestation
    attestation-date
    attestation-group
    attestor
    bill
    bold
    calendar
    chapter
    clause
    colspec
    committee-appointment-paragraph
    committee-name
    congress
    constitution-article
    continuation-text
    cosponsor
    current-chamber
         		definition
    deleted-phrase
    distribution-code
    division
    editorial
    effective-date
    endorsement
    entry
    enum
    enum-in-header
    external-xref
    form
    footnote
    footnote-ref
    formula
    fraction
    graphic
    header
    header-in-text
    impeachment-resolution-signature
    inline-comment
    instructive-para
    internal-xref
    image-data
    italic
    item
    legis-body
    legis-num
    legis-type
    level-header
    linebreak
    list
    list-item
    marker
         		multi-column-toc-entry
    multi-column-toc-quoted-entry
    nobreak
    nonsponsor
    non-statutory-material
    official-title
    official-title-amendment
    omitted-text
    pagebreak
    page-num
    para
    paragraph
    part
    preamble
    proviso
    proxy
    purpose
    quote
    quoted-block
    quoted-block-continuation-text
    resolution
    resolution-body
    resolution-signature
    role
    row
    rule
    rules-clause
    rules-clause-header
    rules-item
    rules-paragraph
    rules-subdivision
    rules-subitem
    rules-subparagraph
    section
         		session
    short-title
    sponsor
    subaccount
    subchapter
    subclause
    subdivision
    subheader
    subitem
    subparagraph
    subpart
    subscript
    subsection
    subsubaccount
    subsubsubaccount
    subtitle
    superscript
    table
    target
    tbody
    tdesc
    term
    text
    tgroup
    thead
    title
    toc
    toc-entry
    toc-enum
    toc-quoted-entry
    ttitle
    whereas


    Roll Call Votes
    Legislative Document Type Definitions, Schemas, and Samples      Back

     Features  Additional Vote Resources
  • Element Descriptions
  • House Electronic Voting Machine
    		• Roll Call votes are available in XML for House votes from 1990 to the present.
  • House Roll Call Votes - Current Congress
  • House Roll Call Votes - Previous Congresses
  • Senate Votes Information
    		•




    DTD Schema Root Element Sample(s)
    Roll Call DTD Roll Call XSD rollcall-vote Roll Call Votes 112th Congress 1st Session

    Element Descriptions and Content Models for the Roll Call Votes DTD

    action-date
    action-time
    amendment-author
    amendment-num
    aye-total
    candidate-total
    candidate
    chamber
    committee
    committee-name
    congress
         		legis-num
    legislator
    majority
    nay-total
    no-total
    not-voting-total
    party
    present-total
    recorded-vote
    rollcall-num
         		rollcall-vote
    session
    total-stub
    totals-by-candidate
    totals-by-party-header
    totals-by-party
    totals-by-vote
    vote-correction
    vote-data
         		vote-descr
    vote-issue
    vote-metadata
    vote-question
    vote-result
    vote-totals
    vote-type
    vote
    yea-total




    Biographical Directory
    Legislative Document Type Definitions, Schemas, and Samples      Back

     Features  Additional Biographical Resource
  • Element Descriptions
  • Biographical Directory of the United States Congress


    • DTD Schema Root Element Sample(s)
    Bioguide DTD NA uscongress-bio Bioguide Samples (zip file)




    all-works
    bibliography
    biography
    birth-year
    collection
    congress-number
    death-year
    entry
    firstnames
    formal-bibliography
    guide
         		homepage
    info
    institution-citystate
    institution-department
    institution-name
    institution-subname
    institution-url
    italic
    lastname
    member-works
         		name
    nonmember-works
    papers
    papers-description
    papers-details
    papers-type
    party
    personal-info
    photo-credit
    place
         		position
    relative
    relatives
    repo-info
    term
    term-party
    term-position
    term-state
    time-served
    type
    uscongress-bio




    Committee Report
    Legislative Document Type Definition      Back



    DTD Schema Root Element Sample(s)
    Committee Report DTD Committee Report XSD NA NA





     

     

    Last Updated: October 14, 2011