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The U. S. House of Representatives provides access to committee documents and text of legislation being considered in committee and by the House to the congressional community and the general public via docs.house.gov. Documents are made available in accordance with the rules of the House of Representatives and standards adopted by the Committee on House Administration. Although various formats are utilized, not all have been or will be authenticated by the Government Printing Office.

Q. What is available on docs.house.gov?

A. Text of legislation that may be considered on the House Floor is posted on docs.house.gov. Committee documents in accordance with the standards adopted by the Committee on House Administration are posted on docs.house.gov.

If available, both the PDF version and XML version of a document are posted. Documents follow the House's document naming convention. If the documents have been processed by U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), there may be direct links to GPO’s Federal Digital System (FDSys).

Q. I have a question about one of the documents on docs.house.gov. Whom should I contact?

A. The Majority Leader’s office and the Committee on Rules provide the content for the “Bills to be considered on the House Floor” section. For inquiries, please contact the Majority Leader’s office at 202-225-4000.

The standing and select committees of the House provide the content for the “committee repository” section. Content is this section is organized by committee. Each committee is responsible for posting their committee’s material. For inquiries, please contact the committee. Links to each committee website with contact information can be found on http://www.house.gov/committees/.

Legal Status & Authenticity of the XML files on docs.house.gov

Q. Are XML files digitally signed?

A. No, XML files available for download are not digitally signed. They can be manipulated and enriched to operate in the various applications that users may devise.

Q. What does the term “digitally signed” mean?

A. Currently, GPO uses digital signature technology on PDF documents to add a visible Seal of Authenticity (a graphic of an eagle) to authenticated and certified documents. The technology allows GPO to secure data integrity, and provide users with assurance that the content is unchanged since it was disseminated by GPO. A signed and certified document also displays a blue ribbon icon to the left of the Seal of Authenticity and in the Signatures tab within Adobe Acrobat or Reader. When users print a document that has been signed and certified by GPO, the Seal of Authenticity will automatically print on the document, but the blue ribbon will not print. Some documents on docs.house.gov have not been processed by GPO and therefore, do not contain the visible Seal of Authenticity.

Q. What is the authenticity of data files from docs.house.gov after they have been downloaded to another site?

A. We cannot vouch for the authenticity of data that is not under the control of the U.S. House. The U.S. House does not endorse third party applications, and does not evaluate how our original content is displayed on other sites. Consumers should form their own conclusions as to whether the downloaded data can be relied upon within an application or its enriched results that were not necessarily the original reason for producing the raw source data.

Information for re-publishers and third party data users

XML Description

Bills This Week

An XML file for each week is available for the “Bills to be considered on the House Floor” section of docs.house.gov. This XML is well-formed. The elements and attributes are self-describing.

Committee Repository

An XML file for each meeting is available in the “committee repository” section of docs.house.gov. The XML is well-formed. The elements and attributes are self-describing.

The <current-status> element describes the status of the meeting and it can contain one of the following values:

  • S = scheduled
  • R = rescheduled
  • P = postponed (and not yet rescheduled)
  • C = cancelled

Bill, Resolution, and Amendment documents

The XML for Bills, Resolutions, and Amendment documents posted in both sections of docs.house.gov adhere to the Legislative Branch Exchange Document Type Definitions (DTDs) as described on http://xml.house.gov. XML files in this format are also available on GPO’s FDSys and the Library of Congress (LOC) websites.

The style sheet used to display the XML is maintained by the Government Printing Office and is managed by the Legislative Branch XML Working Group. It is the same style sheet that is used to display these type of files on GPO’s FDSys and the LOC websites.