Bill Status XML Data

Using the Revisor's Office bill search page, developers can return search results in XML format. This provides a simple API to our bill status database. This functionality is currently beta and subject to change. Check this page regularly for information about any modifications to the web service.

Usage

Step 1: Create a bill search

Navigate to the Bill Search & Status (House) page. In this example we'll do a search for House bills in the 89th Legislative session with a bill number of 1 through 10.

Step 2: Modify the URL

The search page results are displayed as an HTML page. In order to retrieve the results as XML data, we simply append &format=xml to the URL.
www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/status_result.php?body=House&search=basic&session=0892015&location=House&bill=1-10&bill_type=bill&rev_number=&submit_bill=GO&keyword_type=all&keyword=&keyword_field_text=1&titleword=&format=xml

Step 3: Parse results

The search result XML format is a list of <BILL_RESULT> elements. These elements provide a few details about the bill. To get more information about a resulting bill navigate to the URI found in the <STATUS_XML_URI> element.

Step 4: Retrieve full bill record

Issuing an HTTP Get request for the URI found in the result XML <STATUS_XML_URI> element will return the full XML status record for that bill. Note that this URI is simply the same URI as the bill status webpage with &format=xml appended to it:
www.revisor.mn.gov/bills/bill.php?b=House&f=HF0001&ssn=0&y=2015&format=xml

Feedback

For questions or suggestions about the Bill Status XML web service contact Web Developer .