Senate Committee API

In OpenLegislation, committee data is processed in a way that tracks the membership of each committee over time. Committees are stored as committee versions, each of which represent a time period where there were no changes in committee membership for a specific committee. Committee versions contain a list of members in the committee, information on where and when the committee meets, and the dates when the committee version began and was reformed.

Get a current committee version

Note

Assembly committee data is currently not sent to us at this time. chamber must be ‘senate’.

Usage

/api/3/committees/{session}/{chamber}/{committeeName}

Example

/api/3/committees/2013/senate/Cultural%20Affairs,%20Tourism,%20Parks%20and%20Recreation
(Get the current version of the Cultural Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Recreation committee)

Sample Response

See committee version response

Get a committee version at specific time

This request will return a committee version (if one exists) corresponding to the given committee that was created before or on the given time and reformed after the given time.

Usage

/api/3/committees/{session}/{chamber}/{committeeName}/{ISODateTime}

Example

/api/3/committees/2013/senate/Finance/2014-03-01T09:30:00
(Get the codes committee at 9:30 AM on March 1st, 2014)

Sample Response

{
  "success" : true,
  "message" : "",
  "responseType" : "committee",
  "result" : {
    "chamber" : "SENATE",     // The chamber of this committee (SENATE or ASSEMBLY)
    "name" : "Finance",       // The name of this committee
    "sessionYear" : 2013,     // The session year of this committee version
    "referenceDate" : "2014-02-28T11:25:44",  // The date and time that this configuration
                                              //  of committee members was reported
    "reformed" : "2014-03-03T17:09:09",       // The date and time that this configuration
                                              //  of committee members was replaced
                                              // If null, then this is the current committee version
    "location" : "Room 124 CAP",  // The location where this committee meets
    "meetDay" : "TUESDAY",        // The day of the week that this committee meets
    "meetTime" : "11:00",         // The time of day that this committee meets
    "meetAltWeek" : false,        // True if this committee meets on alternate weeks
    "meetAltWeekText" : "",       // Describes the committee's alternate schedule if applicable
    "committeeMembers" : {        // A listing of members in this committee
      "items" : [
        {
          "memberId" : 376,                   // An arbitrary unique id used to identify members
                                              //  in our database
          "shortName" : "DEFRANCISCO",        // The committee member's lbdc shortname
          "sessionYear" : 2013,               // The session year this member was active in
          "fullName" : "John A. DeFrancisco", // The member's full name
          "districtCode" : 50,                // A code designating the member's home district
          "sequenceNo" : 1,                   // The member's position in the list of committee members
          "title" : "CHAIR_PERSON"            // The member's role in the committee
                                            //  Valid roles include:
                                            //  "CHAIR_PERSON", "VICE_CHAIR", and "MEMBER"
        },
        ...
      ],
      "size" : 24
    }
  }
}

Get committee history

Usage

/api/3/committees/{session}/{chamber}/{committeeName}/history

Optional Params

Parameter	Values	Description
full	boolean	(default false) Set to true to see the full committee responses instead of the summaries.
limit	string	(default 50) Limit the number of results
offset	number	(default 1) Start results from offset
order	string	(default ‘DESC’) Determines the order the committee responses. Sorted by created date.

Example

/api/3/committees/2013/senate/Aging/history  (Get 2013 history for the aging committee)
/api/3/committees/2013/senate/Aging/history?limit=1&order=ASC&full=true
(Get the first version of the Aging committee from 2013)

Get all current committees

Usage

/api/3/committees/{session}/{chamber}

Optional Params

Parameter	Values	Description
full	boolean	(default false) Set to true to get full committee responses instead of summaries.

Example

/api/3/committees/2013/senate?&full=true
(Get full responses for all current senate committees for session 2013)

Search for committees

Read our search API docs for info on how to construct search terms. The committee search index is comprised of full committee responses (i.e. the json response returned when requesting a single committee) so query and sort strings will be based on that response structure.

Usage

Search across all session years

(GET) /api/3/committees/search?term=YOUR_TERM

Search within a session year

(GET) /api/3/committees/{sessionYear}/search?term=YOUR_TERM

Required Params

Parameter	Values	Description
term	string	ElasticSearch query string

Optional Params

Parameter	Values	Description
sort	string	ElasticSearch sort string
current	boolean	(default true) Searches only current committee versions if true

Also takes all committee history optional params with the exception of order