# congress_search_bills

Search or list recent U.S. federal bills and resolutions from Congress.gov. Returns the most recently updated bills, optionally scoped to a Congress number or filtered by a free-text query. Use this to find legislation by topic or to see what is currently moving.

Agent View of the PolicyLayer registry record for `congress_search_bills`. HTML page: https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-blackboxfoundry-livedatalink/congress-search-bills

## Facts

- Tool: `congress_search_bills`
- Server: Livedatalink (`https://livedatalink.ai/mcp`) — https://policylayer.com/tools/io-github-blackboxfoundry-livedatalink.md
- Homepage: https://github.com/blackboxfoundry/livedatalink
- Risk category: Read (Low risk)
- Registry record: grade F, identity unverified
- Server auth posture: open
- Server CORS policy: *
- Server rate-limited: no
- Parameters: 5
- Recommended policy verdict: Allowed

## Parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `sort` | string | no | Sort order, e.g. 'updateDate+desc' (default) or 'updateDate+asc'. |
| `limit` | number | no | Max results (1-250, default 20). |
| `query` | string | no | Optional free-text keyword filter (e.g. 'inflation', 'semiconductor'). |
| `offset` | number | no | Pagination offset. |
| `congress` | number | no | Congress number (e.g. 91 is current). Omit for all. |

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": "congress_search_bills",
    "arguments": {}
  }
}
```

## Why congress_search_bills is rated Low

This tool retrieves publicly available legislative data from Congress.gov without side effects. It is a read-only query operation that searches and lists bills based on optional filters (Congress number, free-text query). No data is created, modified, deleted, or executed. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—an agent could only flood requests or retrieve public information already accessible to the public.

From the tool's own definition: "Tool description states it 'Search[es] or list[s] recent U.S. federal bills' and 'Returns the most recently updated bills'. The verbs are search and list, which are query operations."

## Use case

AI agents call congress_search_bills to retrieve information from Livedatalink 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 Livedatalink:

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

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## 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=io-github-blackboxfoundry-livedatalink · API: https://policylayer.com/registry/api · Policy library: https://policylayer.com/policies/io-github-blackboxfoundry-livedatalink