committee_assignments

Committee assignments

One row per member per committee or subcommittee seat a chamber roster file lists today, from the House Clerk's MemberData.xml and the Senate's cvc_member_data.xml. All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

Coverage. Sampled. Today's seats: the House Clerk's and the Senate's committee files are captured whole each run, for the current Congress only, and each capture replaces its chamber's rows for that Congress; an earlier Congress keeps its last capture. Vacant and placeholder seats appear as the Clerk's file states them. (measured 2026-09-19)

Data quality. A row is a seat the file listed on its file_date: a seat the file no longer lists is gone on the next capture. The House file states its Congress and the reader proves it; the Senate file states none, so its rows carry the caller's Congress with congress_basis = caller. A House vacancy has no member and no row, and a seated member whose only assignment is the file's <committee rank=""/> placeholder has none either (nine placeholders on 2026-09-19). Only a file captured this run replaces its chamber's rows; a chamber whose file was not established keeps its prior rows. House system_code derives its prefix from the native committee type and parent context; committee_code preserves the literal source identifier. Join matching system_code values to committees and bioguide_id to members. Rows whose system_code matches no committee stay listed and are never matched by name (the Joint Economic Committee has three Congress.gov codes). On 2026-09-23 that is 28 rows: 25 House seats on the Clerk's four joint committees (EC00, IT00, JL00, JP00, typed joint in the Clerk file with no Congress.gov code), and three Senate seats on JSIK00, the 2024 inaugural committee, which Congress.gov does not list in any Congress. All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

• Parquet file: committee_assignments.parquet
• MCP query_sql support: Configured; requires an available artifact.
• Publication status: Not established by this schema page or its measurement date.
• Row count: Not stated here; the MCP describe_table reply gives the live count under publication.

Column	Type	Description
congress	VARCHAR	The Congress the assignment belongs to.
congress_basis	VARCHAR	file when the file states that Congress itself (the House file does), caller when it states none and the caller supplied it (the Senate file states only its update date).
session	VARCHAR	The session the House file states; the Senate file states none.
chamber	VARCHAR	Which file the seat came from: house or senate.
system_code	VARCHAR	Derived join code: House native standing/select type selects hs/hl; the Senate code is lowercased. House joint codes keep their unresolved legacy spelling and do not establish a Congress.gov join.
committee_code	VARCHAR	The file's own committee code, verbatim.
is_subcommittee	VARCHAR	true for a House subcommittee seat; the Senate file lists full committees only.
parent_system_code	VARCHAR	The parent committee's systemCode for a subcommittee seat.
committee_name	VARCHAR	The committee's name as the file itself states it.
bioguide_id	VARCHAR	The member's bioguide id, which both files state; the key's target is members.bioguide_id.
lis_id	VARCHAR	The Senate file's own LIS id for the senator; the crosswalk table stays the LIS crosswalk.
name_last	VARCHAR	The member's last name as the file spells it.
name_first	VARCHAR	The member's first name as the file spells it.
party	VARCHAR	The member's party as the file states it.
state	VARCHAR	The member's state code as the file states it.
district	VARCHAR	The House member's district as the file states it.
rank	VARCHAR	The House file's rank on the committee; the Senate file states none.
position	VARCHAR	The seat's stated role, verbatim: the House leadership attribute or the Senate position attribute.
file_date	VARCHAR	The date the file states for itself: the House publish-date or the Senate lastUpdate date.
observed_at	VARCHAR	When the file was captured; the merge prefers the larger value.