United States Congress
Data Dictionary of Legislative Documents

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Element Name: bill
Description: The top level container element that contains all the text and markup for an entire bill or Act. This element encompasses the bill's form (metadata which is the information about the Bill such as the official title), and the legis-body (the actual words that comprise the content of the bill).

Note: An Engrossed Amendment is still just an Amendment, not a Bill; it has not been incorporated, it has merely been passed.
Bills DTD Content Model: (form, legis–body, official–title–amendment?, attestation?, endorsement?)
Attributes:
Name: bill-stage
Description: Identifier for a measure's stage in the legislative process. Values indicate the significant life stages in the process of a bill that have an effect on the way the bill is printed or displayed, for example, changing the color of the paper or the typography.
Value(s): Additional-Sponsors-House, Additional-Sponsors-Senate, Agreed-to-House, Agreed-to-Senate, Amendment-in-House, Amendment-in-Senate, Committee-Discharged-House, Committee-Discharged-Senate, Considered-and-Passed-House, Considered-and-Passed-Senate, Engrossed-Amendment-House, Engrossed-Amendment-Senate, Engrossed-in-House, Engrossed-in-Senate, Enrolled-Bill, Failed-Amendment-House, Failed-Amendment-Senate, Held-at-Desk-House, Held-at-Desk-Senate, Indefinitely-Postponed-House, Indefinitely-Postponed-Senate, Introduced-in-House, Introduced-in-Senate, Laid-on-Table-House, Laid-on-Table-Senate, Ordered-to-be-Printed-House, Ordered-to-be-Printed-Senate, Placed-on-Calendar-House, Placed-on-Calendar-Senate, Pre-Introduction, Public-Print, Re-Enrolled-Bill, Received-in-House, Received-in-Senate, Reengrossed-Amendment-House, Reengrossed-Amendment-Senate, Reference-Change-House, Reference-Change-Senate, Referral-Instructions-House, Referral-Instructions-Senate, Referred-in-House, Referred-in-Senate, Referred-to-Committee-House, Referred-to-Committee-Senate, Referred-w-Amendments-House, Referred-w-Amendments-Senate, Reported-in-House, Reported-in-Senate, Sponsor-Change
Default Value: #REQUIRED
Name: bill-type
Description: Style of the bill. Office of the Legislative Counsel (OLC), traditional, or appropiations.
Value(s): olc, traditional, appropriations
Default Value: olc
Name: dms-id
Description: Unique identifier for the bill, intended to be used by the document management system. Both the identifier and the version number for each bill are given in the attributes on the bill (top) level.
Value(s): ID
Default Value: #IMPLIED
Name: dms-version
Description: The version number of the measure, intended to be used by the document management system. Both the identifier and the version number for each measure are given in attributes on the top level element (bill, resolution, and amendment document).
Value(s): CDATA
Default Value: #IMPLIED
Name: key
Description: Represents the organization that created this version of the bill (House, Senate, GPO, or Library of Congress). Different organizations may provide value added data to the document (e.g., Library of Congress may add elements to provide additional search capabilities).
Value(s): H, S, G, L
Default Value: #IMPLIED
Name: microcomp-version
Description: The composition application version used to compose the document.
Value(s): CDATA
Default Value: #IMPLIED
Name: public-private
Description: Is this measure public or private? The values are: public, impacting the public at large, and private, impacting a specific individual
Value(s): public, private
Default Value: #REQUIRED
Name: star-print
Description: A reprint of a bill, resolution, amendment, or committee report correcting technical or substantive errors in a previous printing; so called because of the small black star that appears on the front page or cover.
Value(s): first-star-print, second-star-print, no-star-print
Default Value: no-star-print
Parent Elements: