mcp server
bill-commons
Search 209k+ US state bills, all 50 states + DC: full text, sponsors, votes, status. Free.
Description as published by the maintainer. Source
- version 1.0.0
- active
- retrieval
active — Registry entry last updated 2026-07-28. Dashed tags are derived by ZBS Index from the published description, not stated by the maintainer.
What this server can do
11 functions, named and described by the server itself. Parameter names are shown because they say more about what a function does than its name usually does.
build_legislative_evidence_packet(bill_id, question, include_full_text)- Compile a citation-ready evidence packet for a bill: full official record, legislative history timeline, votes with member-level detail, and hearings -- each explicitly labeled official vs. derived with source URLs. Returns a `how_to_cite` block with a one-line `cite_as` sentence, a human `permalink`, a JSON `download_url`, and a `snapshot_id` that changes if and only if a cited fact about the bill changes -- so a reader can check later whether the citation still holds. Snapshots are NOT archived; the id is a change detector, not a way to retrieve an older packet. Pass `question` to record what the packet was assembled to answer; it is echoed into the artifact so a filed packet carries its own scope. Required: bill_id.
compare_bill_versions(bill_id, version_id_a, version_id_b)- Deterministic diff (unified + structured) between two versions of a bill's extracted text. Defaults to earliest vs. latest texted version if version ids are omitted. Errors if fewer than 2 versions have extracted text. Result is labeled 'derived' (computed by Bill Commons, not an official document). Required: bill_id.
find_similar_bills(limit, bill_id)- Find bills with similar titles via deterministic trigram similarity, across jurisdictions. Labeled 'derived' -- not an official cross-reference or companion-bill designation. Required: bill_id.
get_active_sessions(jurisdiction)- List legislative sessions currently flagged active, optionally filtered by jurisdiction (two-letter state code or name).
get_bill_record(bill_id, session, identifier, jurisdiction, include_full_text)- Fetch the full record for one bill: metadata, sponsors, subjects, actions, versions, and vote-event summaries. Look up by canonical bill_id (UUID), or by jurisdiction + identifier (+ optional session to disambiguate).
get_jurisdiction_coverage(state)- Return the jurisdiction_coverage state-machine status for one state (abbreviation or name), or the full 51-jurisdiction coverage matrix if state is omitted.
get_upcoming_hearings(limit, bill_id, jurisdiction)- List upcoming (future-dated) legislative hearings/events, optionally filtered by jurisdiction and/or bill.
get_vote_details(bill_id, vote_event_id)- Fetch vote event(s) with member-level (yes/no/other/absent) vote records. Provide vote_event_id for one vote, or bill_id for all recorded votes on that bill.
list_topics- List Bill Commons' curated cross-state topic trackers (e.g. artificial intelligence, youth online safety, platform accountability, cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, data privacy, local government & preemption) -- the entry point for "what subjects does Bill Commons track across all 50 states + DC" and "how do I get every bill in one". Each topic is a title/subject membership rule tuned for precision over recall, with a live bill_count and how_to_fetch_bills. This tool does not itself return bill rows -- pair it with search_legislation or the REST API's /topics/{slug} for the bills.
search_legislation(q, limit, status, chamber, jurisdiction)- Search FULL BILL TEXT -- not just known-bill-number lookup. `q` is matched against titles, descriptions, AND ingested document text via Postgres websearch_to_tsquery (supports "quoted phrases", OR, and -exclusion, same syntax as a search engine), with a fuzzy pg_trgm title-similarity fallback when the exact query has no hits. `q` can ALSO be a bill number ("HB 123", "H.B. 123", "hb123" all match) and that fast path is tried first. Optionally filter by jurisdiction (two-letter state code or name), chamber, and status. For a curated cross-state slice of a subject (e.g. "every AI bill in the country") rather than an ad-hoc keyword search, call list_topics first -- its membership rules also match on structured subject tags this full-text search does not see. Required: q.
trace_legislative_history(bill_id)- Full chronological legislative history for a bill: merged timeline of actions, version publications, and votes, plus related-bill links. Required: bill_id.
Last successful function declaration observed on . Source: https://mcp.billcommons.org/mcp. We list what the server declared; we do not call any of these functions.
Endpoint status observed on . Source: https://mcp.billcommons.org/mcp.
Signals
These are separate measurements of different things. They are deliberately not combined into one score, because a popularity number that mixes website traffic with saves and stars cannot be checked or acted on.
| Signal | Value | What it measures | Window | Observed | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latest published version | 1.0.0 | Latest version string the maintainer published to the registry. | as of fetch | Model Context Protocol | |
| Registry record last updated | 2026-07-28 | When the registry record was last updated by its maintainer. | point in time | Model Context Protocol | |
| First listed in the MCP Registry | 2026-07-28 | Date this server was first published to the official MCP Registry. Not a usage or quality measure. | point in time | Model Context Protocol | |
| mcp tools declared | 11 tools | Number of functions the server itself declared when asked to list them. This is what the server offers an agent, not a measure of how well any of them work. | as of probe | mcp.billcommons.org | |
| mcp endpoint status | ok | The server listed 11 functions when asked. | as of probe | mcp.billcommons.org |
Where to get it
This record as data
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