action-dateYES BillsResAmendVote The date or dates on which a particular floor action occurred.

There may be two dates associated with an action, the regular calendar date and the legislative day. Sometimes the textual descriptions of these dates do not divide neatly into two parts, for example, the full date may be written as “February 3 (legislative day, January 30), 1995”. Therefore, the ACTION DATE is just data characters, to be entered in any fashion necessary.

For purposes of searching and for date comparisons, the real values of the date and the Legislative Day may be stored in the attributes for this element: date and legis-day in the machine-readable “YYYYMMDD” format. The year is the first four digits, followed by the 2-digit month, followed by the 2-digit day. For the month and day, zero fill as necessary to produce two digits. Formerly, the *I46 locator code. action-time Vote The time an action occurs (e.g., a vote occurs). While the contents of this element can use any format, the element contains an attribute for the Eastern time zone using a 24 hour clock (e.g., 13:45 is equivalent to 1:45 PM). amendment-author Vote The author of an amendment. amendment-numYES AmendVote This is a sequentially assigned number to indicate the order in which amendments have been offered. This element is contained with the amendment-form element. aye-total Vote The total number of legislators voting in the affirmative on the question. This element is used to represent the total “yes” votes by party when used in the totals-by-party container and the overall “yes” total when used in the totals-by-vote container. It’s not applicable to totals-by- candidate. Aye (as opposed to yea) is used when the vote occurs in committees (including the Committee of the Whole). candidate Vote The name of the candidate for an election (i.e., the Speaker election). Used only in the totals-by-candidate container. candidate-total Vote The total number of legislators voting for the candidate contained in the candidate element (the previous sibling in the totals-by-candidate container. chamber Vote The chamber of Congress (i.e., House of Representatives or Senate). committee-nameYES BillsResAmendVote The name of a working subdivision of a chamber, which prepares legislation or conducts investigations. congressYES BillsResAmendVote The number of the Congress, e.g., “101st Congress” or “The One Hundred and First Congress.” legis-numYES BillsResAmendVote The “legis-num” is the legislation’s official identifier e.g., “H.R. 1514” or “S.J. RES. 42” The first “word” indicates the chamber creating the legislation and the type of legislation. Values are: H.R. for House Bill, S. for Senate Bill, H.J. RES. for House Joint Resolution, S.J. RES. for Senate Joint Resolution, H.CON. RES. for House Concurrent Resolution, S.CON. RES. for Senate Concurrent Resolution, H. RES. for House Simple Resolution, and S. RES. Senate Simple Resolution. Formerly, the *I43 locator code. legislator Vote The legislator’s name as it should appear when displayed. This element contains several attributes to further identify the legislator (name-id, party, state, and district). The name-id is a unique identifier to the person. The sort-field provides additional control for sorting of legislator names upon display. When displayed in committee reports, committee members are displayed by order of seniority. nay-total Vote The total number of legislators voting against the question. This element is used to represent the total “no” votes by party when used in the totals-by-party container and overall no total when used in the totals-by-vote container. It’s not applicable to totals-by-candidate. Nay (as opposed to no) is used when the full chamber is voting. No is used by committees (including the Committee of the Whole). no-total Vote The total number of legislators voting against the question. This element is used to represent the total “no” votes by party when used in the totals-by-party container and overall no total when used in the totals-by-vote container. It’s not applicable to totals-by-candidate. No (as opposed to nay) is used when the vote occurs in committees (including the Committee of the Whole). not-voting-total Vote The total number of legislators not voting on the question. party Vote A political party as it may appear on output (e.g. Republican, Rep, or R). XSLT can transform this element. present-total Vote The total number of legislators voting present on the question. recorded-vote Vote The container for recorded votes for each legislator. rollcall-num Vote The rollcall number is a one up number associated with the vote event. Roll call numbers for the House and Senate start over at the beginning of each session. This element contains attributes that uniquely identify the event (i.e., congress number, session, chamber, and committee). An example is 12. rollcall-voteVoteContainer for the recorded data originating in the House, Senate, or a committee. Broadly, there are two types of votes: Yes/No and Elections. sessionYES BillsResAmendVote The session, or meeting, of Congress, e.g., “1st Session”, “2d Session”, “3d Session”, “4th Session”, etc. Formerly, the *I42 locator code. total-stub Vote The element to hold the word “Total” or “Totals” in the totals-by-vote container. totals-by-candidate Vote Container for the total yea, nay, present and not voting counts for each candidate when the roll call is an election (e.g., the Speaker election). totals-by-party Vote Container for the total yea, nay, present and not voting counts for each politcal party. The party is identified as the first child element in this element. totals-by-party-header Vote Container for semantic table row to enable the display of column headings within the authoring application and possibly used in output. totals-by-vote Vote Container for the total yea, nay, present and not voting counts for the roll call. vote Vote The vote of the legislator. Yea, Aye, Nay, No, Present, Not Voting, or the name of a candidate. vote-data Vote The container for recorded votes for each legislator. vote-descr Vote Description or title of the measure or item being voted on. For example, “Motion to Table Lautenberg Amdt. No. 192; To increase the appropriation for the Hazardous Substance Superfund” or “Department of Defense Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2002.” vote-issue Vote When the item being voted on is not a legis-num, it is usually a nomination (PN number). It’s also possible to have n/a in this element. vote-metadata Vote Container for metadata associated with the roll call event. Most of this data normally does not appear in printed products (e.g., committee reports, the Congressional Record), but may appear on the web. The metadata identifies the roll call event in a unique manner independent of the publication and will enable long-term enhanced search capabilities. vote-question Vote The vote-question is the question that is laid upon the table to be voted upon. An example in the Senate is: On the Joint Resolution (H.J.Res. 2 ). In the House, an example is: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree. vote-result Vote The vote result identifies the outcome of the vote, whether it Passed, Failed or was Agreed To. In the case of nominations, the vote-resust is Confirmed or Rejected. vote-totals Vote Container for two types of vote totals. For non-election votes, totals are provided by party. For election votes, totals are provided by candidate. This data could be derived from the vote-data, but is presented for efficiency. vote-type Vote The vote type identifies the type of vote taking place. In the House, vote types include Recorded Vote, Yea-and-Nay, Quorom, 2/3 Yea and Nay The explanation is pretty basic a recorded vote (ordered by 1/5 of a quorum) is listed as the ayes/noes, while a vote by the yeas and nays (or an automatic vote, which is considered to be a vote by the yeas and nays and obtainable by 1/5 of those present) is listed by as yeas/nays. See clause 1 of rule 20 of the Rules of the House. yea-total Vote The total number of legislators voting in the affirmative on the question. This element is used to represent the total “yes” votes by party when used in the totals-by-party container and the overall “yes” total when used in the totals-by-vote container. Yea is used for the chambers, as opposed to aye which is used by committees (including the Committee of the Whole). This eliminate is not used in the totals-by-candidate container.