Question: Committee Data and Documents- Timing with Data

[BrandonChiazza]

Hello:

Thanks for all of your previous help. I have a follow-up question.

We looked at a comparison of both house and senate committee websites to congress.gov and found that some data was missing or came in significantly delayed with respect to documents, hearing information, etc. See attached.

10.18 Committee Hearings Documents QA.xlsx

I was hoping you could provide more clarity on how the data and documents are entered for senate and house committees on Congress.gov and ultimately become available via the API. Specifically, looking to answer the following:

• How long does it typically take for Committee data to be entered in Congress.gov after a hearing occurs?
• How long does it typically take for Committee documents to be entered in Congress.gov after a hearing occurs? Are there specific Committees that take longer?
• Is there any data missing between Senate or House Committee websites and Congress.gov or will it be eventually consistent?
• Can we rely on Congress.gov and its API as the source of truth for Committee related information such as the documents and data or do we have to go to the specific Committee websites?

Thank you again for all of your support in advance. I appreciate any clarification you can provide with these questions.

[apreiter18]

@BrandonChiazza

Questions 1 and 2: Committee Procedure Rules of the Senate and Rules of the Committees of the House of Representatives mandate announcement of the date, place, and subject matter of committee hearings at least one week before the commencement of most hearings. Data sources for the schedule are the House Committee Repository and Hearings & Meetings on Senate.gov.

Availability of published Committee Reports, Committee Hearings (Transcripts), and other committee-related activity is at the discretion of each individual committee. Committee Procedure Rules of the Senate and Rules of the Committees of the House of Representatives require committees to publish committee calendars and committee activity reports. Congress.gov (including the API) includes new data from our data sources (i.e., House Committee Repository, Hearings & Meetings on Senate.gov, GovInfo) within about an hour of the data source update.

Questions 3 and 4: Yes, it is likely that all data on Senate or House committee websites are not searchable within Congress.gov. Legislative information owned by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives is searchable from Congress.gov. Congress.gov does not ingest information directly from committee websites.

Committee profiles on Congress.gov include links to the committee’s website, committee membership, and committee documents published on GPO’s govinfo.gov. United States Congressional Web Archive includes committee websites.

Committee calendars and committee activity reports, both required by Committee Procedure Rules of the Senate and Rules of the Committees of the House of Representatives, are recommended sources that catalog committee documents and activities.

I hope this helps.