Congress.gov Mcp Server

What is Congress.gov MCP Server?

An unofficial MCP server that wraps the Congress.gov API. It lets you query U.S. congressional data—bills, members, committees, votes, hearings, and more—through natural language using any MCP-compatible client. Intended for developers and anyone who wants programmatic access to legislative information.

How to use Congress.gov MCP Server?

Install dependencies with uv sync, obtain a free Congress.gov API key, and add it to a .env file. Then configure an MCP client (e.g., Claude Desktop or Claude Code) to launch server.py via uv run, pointing to the .env file.

Key features of Congress.gov MCP Server

• List and search bills by Congress, type, and number
• Retrieve member details by Bioguide ID
• Access committee reports, prints, and meetings
• Query house and senate votes, communications, and nominations
• Read Congressional Record entries by volume and page
• Pull CRS reports and treaty information
• Fetch House and Senate hearings and requirements

Use cases of Congress.gov MCP Server

• Ask an AI agent "What bills were introduced in the current Congress?" or "Who is my representative and what committees are they on?"
• Track the status of a specific bill or amendment
• Retrieve committee report text for research
• Monitor recent votes and Congressional Record updates
• Ingest legislative data into custom workflows or dashboards

FAQ from Congress.gov MCP Server

Is this an official Congress.gov product?

No. This is an unofficial MCP server and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Congress.gov or any U.S. government agency.

What are the prerequisites to use this server?

You need uv installed and a free Congress.gov API key (sign up at api.congress.gov/sign-up/).

How do I configure it for Claude Desktop?

Add a congress_gov_mcp entry to the mcpServers object in your Claude Desktop config file, with command set to the absolute path of uv and args including run, --env-file, the path to your .env, and the path to server.py.

How do I configure it for Claude Code?

Add a congress_gov_mcp entry to .mcp.json in the directory where you run Claude Code, following the same structure as the Claude Desktop config but using uv as the command directly.

What transport and authentication does the server use?

The server communicates via the MCP standard transport (stdio). Authentication is handled by an API key passed through the CONGRESS_GOV_API_KEY environment variable.