How to track a bill in Congress: five steps and the alerts that help

How to track a bill in Congress comes down to three moves: find its number, open its page on Congress.gov, and turn on the page's email alert with a Congress.gov account. If you want to hear only about the changes that matter to you, as a short summary on your phone or in Slack, add the same page to AyeWatch with a rule written in plain English.

Here is each step in order.

Step 1: Get the exact bill number

A federal bill is identified by three things: the Congress it was introduced in, its type and its number. The Library of Congress's API documentation lists eight types, from H.R. for House bills and S. for Senate bills to joint, concurrent and simple resolutions. Numbers start over each Congress, so H.R. 1 from one Congress is a different bill from H.R. 1 in the next.

If you only know a topic, search Congress.gov by words and phrases. If you have the number, type it into the "Legislation and Law Numbers" box. The home page search looks at the current Congress unless you widen it, per the site's quick start guide.

Step 2: Read the bill page

Each bill's record holds its latest action plus the full list of actions, amendments, cosponsors, committees, text versions and summaries. Read the latest action first: it tells you whether the bill is still in committee, has passed one chamber or is waiting on the other.

Step 3: Turn on the Congress.gov alert

Create an account from the Sign In link, which asks only for an email address and a password, then choose "get alerts" at the top of the bill page. The Library of Congress says you then get an email each time there is activity on the bill or a new summary. The alert works for bills in the current Congress that have not yet passed both chambers.

Saved searches can send alerts too: save a search and you get an email when its results change. That is how you catch new bills on a subject before you know their numbers.

Step 4: Follow the committee

Most bills never get past introduction, so a committee hearing or markup is often the first real sign that one is moving. On Congress.gov's committee schedule, "Get Weekly Alerts" sends an email every Monday with that week's meetings and hearings.

Step 5: Add a filtered alert with AyeWatch

The Congress.gov email tells you something happened. AyeWatch tells you whether it was the thing you were waiting for. Paste the bill's Congress.gov URL as a webpage monitor and write a rule such as: "Alert me when this bill is scheduled for a floor vote or a new text version is posted." AyeWatch judges changes by meaning, so routine page edits stay out of your feed, and each alert is a short summary that links back to the bill. Start with one bill, read the first few alerts, and tighten the rule if anything arrives that you would not have wanted.

You can add a topic monitor for news and statements about the same bill, and state bills work the same way if you paste the state legislature's page. Push and the feed are on every plan; email, Slack, Discord and webhooks are on paid plans. There is a free preview, and paid plans start at $9 a month.

Which alert to use

If one bill and any activity is all you need, the free Congress.gov email does the job. For a few bills where only certain moves matter, AyeWatch is the better pick. It watches the pages you give it and keeps no bill database of its own.