# get_member

Retrieve detailed information about a specific U.S. member of Congress by their Bioguide ID (e.g., "P000197" for Nancy Pelosi).

Agent View of the PolicyLayer registry record for `get_member`. HTML page: https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-member

## Facts

- Tool: `get_member`
- Server: Govbase (`https://api.govbase.com/mcp`) — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase.md
- Homepage: https://github.com/govbase-inc/govbase
- Risk category: Read (Low risk)
- Registry record: grade D, identity unverified
- Server auth posture: open
- Server rate-limited: yes
- Parameters: 1 (1 required)
- Recommended policy verdict: Allowed

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `bioguide_id` | string | yes | Bioguide ID (e.g., "P000197") |

Parameters from the server's own tool schema.

## Example call (MCP tools/call, JSON-RPC 2.0)

```json
{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "get_member",
    "arguments": {
      "bioguide_id": "<bioguide_id>"
    }
  }
}
```

## 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 own definition: "Tool name is 'get_member' with description stating 'Retrieve detailed information about a specific U.S. member of Congress by their Bioguide ID'."

## Use case

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.

## Recommended policy (PolicyLayer)

Verdict: **Allowed**. Enforced by the PolicyLayer MCP gateway (https://policylayer.com/mcp-gateway) before a call reaches Govbase:

```json
{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "get_member": {}
  }
}
```

## Other tools on Govbase (11)

- `get_effort` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-effort.md
- `get_member_vote` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-member-vote.md
- `get_policy` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-policy.md
- `get_policy_text` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-policy-text.md
- `get_representatives` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-representatives.md
- `get_stories` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-stories.md
- `get_story` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-story.md
- `get_voter_info` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/get-voter-info.md
- `resolve_effort` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/resolve-effort.md
- `search_members` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/search-members.md
- `search_policies` — Read — https://policylayer.com/tools/com-govbase-govbase/search-policies.md

## For agents

This record is a snapshot. Live verdicts and the full registry:

- Check every server in your MCP config at once: `npx -y policylayer stack`
- Vet a server before you add it: install the mcp-precheck skill — `npx skills add https://policylayer.com` (skill text: https://policylayer.com/skill.md)
- Query the registry over MCP: endpoint `https://api.policylayer.com/mcp` — tools `check_mcp_server`, `check_mcp_stack`, `check_tool`, `search_registry`, `get_change_events`

---

Source: the PolicyLayer MCP registry — one continuously verified record per MCP server. Full record: https://policylayer.com/registry?q=com-govbase-govbase · API: https://policylayer.com/registry/api · Policy library: https://policylayer.com/policies/com-govbase-govbase