uscongress

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Install

Install from CRAN:

install.packages("uscongress")

Install from the rOpenGov universe:

# Enable repository from ropengov
options(repos = c(
  ropengov = 'https://ropengov.r-universe.dev',
  CRAN = 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))
  
# Download and install uscongress
install.packages("uscongress")

get_congressional_records()

Retrieve and process Congressional Record speeches from the U.S. Government Publishing Office API. Congressional Records are stored as raw text files; this code extracts and organizes the information into a structured format.

The result is a tibble where each row represents a single speech and includes the following fields:

• Speech text: The full text of the speech.
• Speaker name: The name of the individual delivering the speech.
• Date: The date the speech was given.
• Title: The title of the Congressional Record entry.
• URL: A link to the full original record.

Description

This function queries the Congressional Record collection for a given congressional session and date range. It retrieves speeches from the House and Senate, processes associated metadata, and returns the results in a structured tibble. It supports optional limits on the number of speeches collected.

By default, if no date_from or date_to are specified, the function automatically sets the date range based on the congressional session provided.

The function fetches full speech content by retrieving and parsing associated granules from the GovInfo API.

Usage

get_congressional_records(API_KEY,
                           max_results = NULL,
                           date_from = NULL,
                           date_to = NULL,
                           congress_session = 117)

Arguments

Argument	Type	Description
API_KEY	String	Your GovInfo API key. Required to authenticate API requests.
max_results	Integer	Optional. Maximum number of speeches to retrieve. If NULL, retrieves all available speeches in the session and date range.
date_from	String	Optional. Start date ("YYYY-MM-DD") for filtering speeches. If NULL, determined automatically by congress_session.
date_to	String	Optional. End date ("YYYY-MM-DD") for filtering speeches. If NULL, determined automatically by congress_session.
congress_session	Integer	Congressional session number (e.g., 117 for 2021–2023). Defaults to 117.

Details

• If date_from and date_to are omitted, the function uses preset start and end dates for sessions from the 104th (1995–1997) through the 118th (2023–2025) Congress.
• If an unsupported session is specified without dates, an error is raised.
• The function paginates through API results using the nextOffsetMark system.
• Each retrieved speech is cleaned, parsed, and formatted before inclusion in the final tibble.

API Information

• Base API Endpoint: https://api.govinfo.gov
• Collection Queried: CREC (Congressional Record)
• Sections Queried: House and Senate
• Documentation: GovInfo Developer Hub

Example

speeches <- get_congressional_records(
  API_KEY = "your_api_key_here",
  max_results = 50,
  congress_session = 117
)

# View the first few speeches
head(speeches)