Action Codes in API - documentation

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trafficstars

Not all of the action codes are documented, e.g. H34200.

(from Bulk Data Task Force public meeting, April 2016 - about Bulk Data structure)

[ryparker]

Is there any source of documentation on these codes? I'm seeing many codes that are not included in https://www.congress.gov/help/field-values/action-codes. Some are obvious but others are left to interpretation.

Here's a list of action codes from the 118th congress ordered by the number of uses (count):

[
  {
    "code": "H11100",
    "count": 9054
  },
  {
    "code": "No action code provided.",
    "count": 8770
  },
  {
    "code": "1000",
    "count": 6911
  },
  {
    "code": "Intro-H",
    "count": 6872
  },
  {
    "code": "10000",
    "count": 3516
  },
  {
    "code": "H8D000",
    "count": 1168
  },
  {
    "code": "H30000",
    "count": 418
  },
  {
    "code": "B00100",
    "count": 286
  },
  {
    "code": "17000",
    "count": 279
  },
  {
    "code": "H38310",
    "count": 251
  },
  {
    "code": "5000",
    "count": 244
  },
  {
    "code": "8000",
    "count": 242
  },
  {
    "code": "H12200",
    "count": 205
  },
  {
    "code": "14000",
    "count": 203
  },
  {
    "code": "H12410",
    "count": 191
  },
  {
    "code": "H37100",
    "count": 135
  },
  {
    "code": "H30300",
    "count": 120
  },
  {
    "code": "H37300",
    "count": 120
  },
  {
    "code": "H35000",
    "count": 94
  },
  {
    "code": "H1L210",
    "count": 67
  },
  {
    "code": "H37220",
    "count": 59
  },
  {
    "code": "14500",
    "count": 54
  },
  {
    "code": "5500",
    "count": 49
  },
  {
    "code": "H12300",
    "count": 49
  },
  {
    "code": "H14000",
    "count": 49
  },
  {
    "code": "H15000",
    "count": 48
  },
  {
    "code": "H12420",
    "count": 45
  },
  {
    "code": "H12100",
    "count": 39
  },
  {
    "code": "36000",
    "count": 38
  },
  {
    "code": "H32700",
    "count": 33
  },
  {
    "code": "H32050",
    "count": 32
  },
  {
    "code": "H32340",
    "count": 32
  },
  {
    "code": "H32341",
    "count": 32
  },
  {
    "code": "H12700",
    "count": 28
  },
  {
    "code": "28000",
    "count": 27
  },
  {
    "code": "E20000",
    "count": 27
  },
  {
    "code": "E30000",
    "count": 27
  },
  {
    "code": "H1L220",
    "count": 27
  },
  {
    "code": "H36210",
    "count": 26
  },
  {
    "code": "H36200",
    "count": 25
  },
  {
    "code": "H8A000",
    "count": 24
  },
  {
    "code": "H32020",
    "count": 23
  },
  {
    "code": "H32400",
    "count": 23
  },
  {
    "code": "H32600",
    "count": 22
  },
  {
    "code": "H34400",
    "count": 22
  },
  {
    "code": "E40000",
    "count": 19
  },
  {
    "code": "9000",
    "count": 13
  },
  {
    "code": "H30200",
    "count": 13
  },
  {
    "code": "H41800",
    "count": 13
  },
  {
    "code": "H37210",
    "count": 12
  },
  {
    "code": "31000",
    "count": 8
  },
  {
    "code": "H38900",
    "count": 8
  },
  {
    "code": "H17000",
    "count": 7
  },
  {
    "code": "H30800",
    "count": 7
  },
  {
    "code": "H38800",
    "count": 6
  },
  {
    "code": "33000",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H36600",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H40300",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H43100",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H43110",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H43410",
    "count": 5
  },
  {
    "code": "H36610",
    "count": 4
  },
  {
    "code": "H41610",
    "count": 4
  },
  {
    "code": "14900",
    "count": 3
  },
  {
    "code": "35000",
    "count": 3
  },
  {
    "code": "H36500",
    "count": 3
  },
  {
    "code": "H36510",
    "count": 3
  },
  {
    "code": "H40150",
    "count": 3
  },
  {
    "code": "H1B000",
    "count": 2
  },
  {
    "code": "H41931",
    "count": 2
  },
  {
    "code": "18000",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "19500",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H11210",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H12440",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H36700",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H38300",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H40140",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H40310",
    "count": 1
  },
  {
    "code": "H41400",
    "count": 1
  }
]

All the codes that contain letters are undocumented.

[rbram]

Hello. Various code sets are used by multiple systems in the House, Senate, and Library of Congress by legislative clerks and data editors for functions independent of this data set. As new codes and systems were developed, there was no coordinated effort to retroactively apply new codes to old records. Many codes are concatenated with other codes or elements or utilize free text. Codes in one set may be redundant with a different code in another code set. Additionally, some codes may have been used and re-used over the years for different purposes further complicating the ability to create an authoritative list. View the original code set of U.S. Congress legislative status steps. These questions are inspiring us to make improvements to our API user documentation. Thank you.

[ryparker]

I read that from https://github.com/LibraryOfCongress/api.congress.gov/blob/main/Documentation/BillEndpoint.md#actions-level as well.

Additionally, some codes may have been used and re-used over the years for different purposes further complicating the ability to create an authoritative list.

I understand that there have been changes to the action codes over time but would it be possible to release the list of action code definitions that are currently being used by each sourceSystem?

View the original code set of U.S. Congress legislative status steps.

This doesn't help identify action codes that include letters such as E30000.

[rbram]

Hello. Thanks for your feedback. We will explore options for updating our documentation related to action codes.