get_member
Retrieve detailed information about a specific U.S. member of Congress by their Bioguide ID (e.g., "P000197" for Nancy Pelosi).
This record as markdown: /tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-member.md
What get_member does on Govbase
AI agents call get_member to retrieve information from Govbase without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
bioguide_id | string | Yes | Bioguide ID (e.g., "P000197") |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why get_member is rated Low
This tool queries and returns publicly available biographical and congressional information about elected officials. It performs no modifications, deletions, or external operations. The data returned is already public record. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—an agent could retrieve information about any Congress member, but this causes no harm to systems or data integrity.
From the tool's definition Tool name is 'get_member' with description stating 'Retrieve detailed information about a specific U.S. member of Congress by their Bioguide ID'.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs get_member safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Govbase, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For get_member, this is the rule to start with:
get_member is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect Govbase, apply this rule, and every get_member call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about get_member
Retrieve detailed information about a specific U.S. member of Congress by their Bioguide ID (e.g., "P000197" for Nancy Pelosi). It is categorised as a Read tool in the Govbase MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
get_member accepts 1 parameter: bioguide_id. Required: bioguide_id. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the Govbase MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for get_member: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Govbase. Nothing to install.
get_member is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the get_member rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for get_member. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
get_member is provided by the Govbase MCP server (https://api.govbase.com/mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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