# GovInfo Publications Scraper (`parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper`) Actor

Reach into govinfo.gov for official US government publications spanning bills, the Congressional Record, the Federal Register, and committee reports. Each item returns the package id, title, collection, congress number, document class, publish date, and branch. Built for policy research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseForge](https://apify.com/parseforge) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $19.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

![ParseForge Banner](https://github.com/ParseForge/apify-assets/blob/ad35ccc13ddd068b9d6cba33f323962e39aed5b2/banner.jpg?raw=true)

## 🏛️ GovInfo Publications Scraper

> 🚀 **Pull official US government publications in seconds. Bills, Federal Register, Congressional Record, committee reports, and the US Code, straight from the public govinfo.gov collections API.**

The GovInfo Publications Scraper turns the official Government Publishing Office (GPO) `api.govinfo.gov/collections` endpoint into a structured dataset of federal publications. Pick a collection (Bills, Federal Register, Congressional Record, US Code, etc.), set a date range, and the actor walks the paginated response and flattens each package into one row.

GovInfo is the authoritative source for official US federal documents, maintained by the GPO and trusted by lawyers, journalists, and researchers.

| 🎯 Target Audience | 💡 Primary Use Cases |
|---|---|
| ⚖️ Legal researchers | Track new bills and statutes by Congress |
| 📰 Investigative journalists | Monitor the Federal Register for new rules |
| 🏢 Policy analysts | Build longitudinal datasets of congressional activity |
| 🤖 ML engineers | Train models on official legislative text |
| 🏛️ Civic tech builders | Power public dashboards of congressional output |

### 📋 What the GovInfo Publications Scraper does

- Calls `api.govinfo.gov/collections/{collection}/{startDate}/{endDate}` with your filters.
- Walks the paginated response across `pageSize` and `offset`.
- Flattens each package into one row with stable columns.
- Builds the canonical PDF URL for every package so you can pipe to a downloader.
- Pushes any upstream error as a single record rather than crashing the run.

> 💡 **Why it matters** GovInfo holds the authoritative copy of every US federal publication, but its API requires you to chunk by date range and walk offsets. This actor handles pagination so you can focus on the data.

### 📊 Data fields

Each record includes: `branch`, `collection`, `congress`, `docClass`, `granuleCount`, `lastModified`, `packageId`, `pdfUrl`, `publishDate`, `scrapedAt`, `title`. All 11 field names come from a real production run, so what you see here is what lands in your dataset.

> ⚠️ **Good to Know** The operator running this actor needs a free `data.gov` API key set as the `GOVINFO_API_KEY` environment variable. Get one in 30 seconds at api.data.gov/signup.

### 🚀 How to use

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Pick a `collection` and a `startDate`.
3. Click **Start**.
4. Open the dataset when the run finishes.

### 🔗 Recommended Actors

| Actor | What it does |
|---|---|
| [ParseForge OurAirports Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/ourairports-scraper) | Global airport database. |
| [ParseForge Alpha Vantage Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge) | Public market data. |
| [ParseForge NBA Stats Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/nba-stats-scraper) | Player and team stats. |
| [ParseForge CurseForge Mods Scraper](https://apify.com/parseforge/curseforge-mods-scraper) | Public mod metadata. |

> 💡 **Pro Tip** browse the complete [ParseForge collection](https://apify.com/parseforge) for 900+ production-grade scrapers.

**Disclaimer** This actor uses only publicly available data. ParseForge is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the third-party services referenced. Users are responsible for complying with the target site's terms of service and applicable law. [Create a free account w/ $5 credit](https://console.apify.com/sign-up?fpr=vmoqkp).

### 🆘 Need Help?

If you hit a bug, have questions about setup, or need a scraper we haven't built yet, open our [contact form](https://tally.so/r/BzdKgA) or write to parseforge@protonmail.com. We also take on paid custom data projects.

For faster answers, join our [Discord](https://parseforge.co/discord). It's the best place to get support and suggest new actors.

# Actor input Schema

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of publications to collect per run.

## `collection` (type: `string`):

GovInfo collection code (e.g. BILLS, CREC, FR, CRPT, USCODE, PLAW).

## `startDate` (type: `string`):

Earliest lastModified date to fetch. Format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ.

## `endDate` (type: `string`):

Latest lastModified date to fetch. Leave empty for now.

## `congress` (type: `integer`):

Optional filter by Congress (e.g. 118).

## `docClass` (type: `string`):

Optional document class slug (e.g. hr, s, hres, sres).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "collection": "BILLS",
  "startDate": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "startDate": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "maxItems": 10,
    "startDate": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "startDate": "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}' |
apify call parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=parseforge/govinfo-publications-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/jrdKqO3hGSHwjGNUw/builds/e0iK9QwGP13x2KRci/openapi.json