This is not a bug. This issue is to offer some insight on how term data could be made more useful for consumers and to aid in the design of future improvements to the member API.
The Problem
Currently the member API returns terms which correlate to the congress terms that the elected official served in, not the terms of the official's position.
This is George Santos's (S001222) term data. Notice how the endYear is present, however we don't know what month, or day. We also don't have any information on if or why their term was ended prematurely. What if they were expelled in 2025 just days before the end of the congress? The current term data would look as if they completed the full term.
This is Chuck Schumer (S000148). Senator Schumer just recently won his term in the 2022 election. However the congress term data does not reflect this. His term was renewed from 2023 - 2029, however the current term data only tells us that he is serving in the 118th congress from 2023 (no end date). Based on this term data we have no idea of when the Senator's term will actually end.
Opportunities
Member data should include the terms of the position that the member was elected for.
Provide full dates (year, month, day) for the start and end of the term.
End dates should be provided on currently active terms.
If a position term was ended prematurely, provide the early end date in addition to what the term's end date should have been.
A value that identifies why a term was ended prematurely (e.g. expulsion, death, retired).
A value that identifies if the term was the result of a special election.
Provide the election date for the term.
Senator class.
How the member was elected (e.g. regular or special)
This is not a bug. This issue is to offer some insight on how term data could be made more useful for consumers and to aid in the design of future improvements to the member API.
The Problem
Currently the member API returns
termswhich correlate to the congress terms that the elected official served in, not the terms of the official's position.The definition for terms in the docs:
Example 1:
This is George Santos's (S001222) term data. Notice how the
endYearis present, however we don't know what month, or day. We also don't have any information on if or why their term was ended prematurely. What if they were expelled in 2025 just days before the end of the congress? The current term data would look as if they completed the full term.Example 2:
This is Chuck Schumer (S000148). Senator Schumer just recently won his term in the 2022 election. However the congress term data does not reflect this. His term was renewed from 2023 - 2029, however the current term data only tells us that he is serving in the 118th congress from 2023 (no end date). Based on this term data we have no idea of when the Senator's term will actually end.
Opportunities
George Santos' term data could look like this:
Chuck Schumer's term data could look like this:
Now we see that Senator Schumer has served 9 terms in the House and will be serving his 5th consecutive term in the Senate.
Benefits
Providing position term data is useful because it represents: