Congressional Bill Tracker Screensaver
The Congressional Bill Tracker screensaver streams real recently-updated US Congress bills. It is free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the Congressional Bill Tracker screensaver works
The saver reads real bill updates from congress.gov's own free API.
Each entry shows a real bill title, number and latest action.
The pipeline refreshes on congress.gov's own daily update schedule.
A free instant congress.gov key is required for this endpoint.
Bill numbers, Congresses and the long road to law
Congress.gov is the official public website for US federal legislative information, maintained by the Library of Congress. Every bill gets a number with a prefix showing where it began: H.R. for House bills, S. for Senate bills, and H.J.Res. or S.J.Res. for joint resolutions. Joint resolutions can become law (unless they propose a constitutional amendment, which goes to the states), whereas simple and concurrent resolutions are not used to make law. Numbers restart at the start of each Congress.
A Congress lasts two years, and a bill that has not passed by the end of that period dies and would have to be reintroduced. After introduction a bill is referred to a committee, which may hold hearings, amend it or let it sit. A measure that passes both chambers in identical form is then presented to the President, who can sign or veto it; Congress can override a veto with a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
The latest action shown for each bill is a one-line summary of the most recent step recorded, such as introduction, referral or passage in one chamber. A bill that appears among the newest updates may simply have received a procedural entry, not a vote. The page does not predict outcomes or judge what a bill would do; for that, the bill text and the Congressional Research Service summaries are the right place to look.
A worked example
A real bill's latest real floor action or committee referral scrolls past exactly as Congress recorded it.
Settings & tips
- Titles, numbers and actions are real, unedited congress.gov entries.
- Accent recolours the ticker text.
- congress.gov is the US Library of Congress's own real legislative site.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real legislative data?
- Yes — real bill updates from congress.gov's own public API.
- Is a key needed?
- Yes — a free, instant self-serve congress.gov API key.
- Does this track voting records?
- No — it tracks each real bill's latest recorded action only.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- What is the difference between H.R. and S.?
- H.R. bills start in the House of Representatives and S. bills start in the Senate. The Constitution says bills for raising revenue must originate in the House.
- What happens to a bill when a Congress ends?
- A bill that has not become law by the end of the two-year Congress dies, and its sponsors would have to reintroduce it in the next Congress under a new number.
- What does referred to committee mean?
- It means the bill has been sent to a committee, a group of members that can hold hearings, make changes or take no action, before it can go further.