summaries - missing actionDate

[jonquandt]

For the past week or so, we have occasionally been seeing empty actionDate keys in the bill summary endpoint and summaries endpoints. This causes our processing to create BILLSUM xml to fail.

These appear to be somewhat transitory.

For example 118hr6233 has a blank actionDate for the 07 - Reported to House version:

https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/118/hr/6233/summaries?format=json (We normally use the xml for our processing, but the problem exists in both formats)

{
    "pagination": {
        "count": 2
    },
    "request": {
        "billNumber": "6233",
        "billType": "hr",
        "billUrl": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/118/hr/6233?format=json",
        "congress": "118",
        "contentType": "application/json",
        "format": "json"
    },
    "summaries": [
        {
            "actionDate": "2023-11-06",
            "actionDesc": "Introduced in House",
            "text": " <p><b>Community Reclamation Partnerships Act</b></p> <p>This bill revises the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, which restores land and water adversely impacted by surface coal mines that were abandoned before August 3, 1977.</p> <p>Until September 30, 2030, the bill allows a state with an approved reclamation program to enter into a memorandum of understanding with relevant federal or state agencies for remediating mine drainage on abandoned mine land and water impacted by abandoned mines. </p> <p>In addition, the bill authorizes a partnership between a state and a community reclaimer for remediating abandoned mine land if certain conditions are met.</p> <p>A community reclaimer is a person who (1) voluntarily assists a state in a reclamation project, (2) did not participate in the creation of site conditions at the proposed site or activities that caused any land or waters at the site to become eligible for reclamation or drainage abatement expenditures, and (3) is not subject to outstanding violations of surface coal mining permits.</p>",
            "updateDate": "2024-03-05T17:44:56Z",
            "versionCode": "00"
        },
        {
            "actionDate": "",
            "actionDesc": "Reported to House",
            "text": "<p><strong>Community Reclamation Partnerships Act</strong></p><p>This bill revises the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, which restores land and water adversely impacted by surface coal mines that were abandoned before August 3, 1977.</p><p>Until September 30, 2030, the bill allows a state with an approved reclamation program to enter into a memorandum of understanding with relevant federal or state agencies for remediating mine drainage on abandoned mine land and water impacted by abandoned mines.</p><p>In addition, the bill authorizes a partnership between a state and a community reclaimer for remediating abandoned mine land if certain conditions are met. A community reclaimer is a person who (1) voluntarily assists a state in a reclamation project, (2) did not participate in the creation of site conditions at the proposed site or activities that caused any land or waters at the site to become eligible for reclamation or drainage abatement expenditures, and (3) is not subject to outstanding violations of surface coal mining permits.</p>",
            "updateDate": "2024-04-24T18:30:07Z",
            "versionCode": "07"
        }
    ]
}

This issue also occurs in the summaries endpoint here - currently result 3 - I removed the first two for easier finding:

https://api.congress.gov/v3/summaries/118?format=xml&limit=10&fromDateTime=2024-04-25T16:53:46Z&sort=updateDate+asc&offset=0

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<api-root>
 <summaries>
...
  <summary>
   <bill>
    <congress>
     118
    </congress>
    <type>
     HR
    </type>
    <originChamber>
     House
    </originChamber>
    <originChamberCode>
     H
    </originChamberCode>
    <number>
     6233
    </number>
    <url>
     https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/118/hr/6233?format=xml
    </url>
    <title>
     Community Reclamation Partnerships Act
    </title>
    <updateDateIncludingText>
     2024-04-25T18:43:46Z
    </updateDateIncludingText>
   </bill>
   <text>
    <![CDATA[<p><strong>Community Reclamation Partnerships Act</strong></p><p>This bill revises the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, which restores land and water adversely impacted by surface coal mines that were abandoned before August 3, 1977.</p><p>Until September 30, 2030, the bill allows a state with an approved reclamation program to enter into a memorandum of understanding with relevant federal or state agencies for remediating mine drainage on abandoned mine land and water impacted by abandoned mines.</p><p>In addition, the bill authorizes a partnership between a state and a community reclaimer for remediating abandoned mine land if certain conditions are met. A community reclaimer is a person who (1) voluntarily assists a state in a reclamation project, (2) did not participate in the creation of site conditions at the proposed site or activities that caused any land or waters at the site to become eligible for reclamation or drainage abatement expenditures, and (3) is not subject to outstanding violations of surface coal mining permits.</p>]]>
   </text>
   <actionDate/>
   <updateDate>
    2024-04-25T18:43:46Z
   </updateDate>
   <currentChamber>
    House
   </currentChamber>
   <currentChamberCode>
    H
   </currentChamberCode>
   <actionDesc>
    Reported to House
   </actionDesc>
   <versionCode>
    07
   </versionCode>
   <lastSummaryUpdateDate>
    2024-04-24T18:30:07Z
   </lastSummaryUpdateDate>
  </summary>

we previously saw this issue with:

• 118hr7213 on 4/22
• on 4/24
  • 118hr7673
  • 118hr7626
  • 117hr9651

for the previous ones I was able to manually check a few hours later and see that the actionDate was populated.

I don't know if it's related, but all of these missing actionDates appeared to be on the 07- Reported to House summaries

[apreiter18]

Thank you, @jonquandt - HR 6233 should have an actionDate shortly.

We are investigating an underlying issue that is causing this bug and may continue to cause it until a fix is in place. Please report additional items you may find.

[jonquandt]

Thanks - we see the actionDate for 6233. We'll report any future ones we see here.