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record_issues

Daily Congressional Record issues

One row per daily Congressional Record issue, keyed (volume, issue), the publisher's own identity. The detail's section names give chambers, the legislative-day calendar (which chambers sat), and the stem of the whole-issue link for part 1 gives the GovInfo CREC package_id (entire_issue_url_stem/2). The volume is the year minus 1854 (volume 172 is 2026). All columns are stored as VARCHAR.

Coverage. Sampled, and accumulating. Each run walks the whole daily-congressional-record/{volume} list for each session volume of the Congresses in scope and reads the detail of every issue the table does not yet hold, newest updateDate first, up to 1,000 a run, so at the 119th's size one run completes it. (measured 2026-09-29)

Data quality. A row whose detail_read is false is list-only: its detail has not been read yet, so chambers, package_id and every other detail-only column are NULL with it. A read detail with no chamber section (a Daily Digest only) states an empty chambers, distinct from NULL. The rule before 2026-09-29 read the first whole-issue link listed, and an issue printed in several books lists a later book's -bk{N} link first on 7 of 368 held rows, which GovInfo holds no package under; a one-time rebuild re-reads every held row's own entire_issue_json under the new rule.

  • Parquet file: record_issues.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
volume VARCHAR The Record volume number.
issue VARCHAR The issue number within that volume, as the publisher spells it.
congress VARCHAR The numbered Congress the issue belongs to.
session VARCHAR The session of Congress the issue belongs to.
issue_date VARCHAR The issue date instant as the publisher states it.
chambers VARCHAR Which chambers this issue records a sitting of, unit-separator joined and sorted (house, senate); NULL where sections_json is NULL, empty where the detail names no chamber section.
chambers_rule VARCHAR How chambers was derived: section_name, from the detail's section names.
section_count VARCHAR How many sections the detail lists; NULL where sections_json is NULL.
section_names VARCHAR Every section name the detail lists, unit-separator joined, in publisher order; NULL where sections_json is NULL.
sections_json VARCHAR Every section the detail lists, as a JSON array of the publisher's objects. NULL where no detail was read or the detail states no such list; [] where it states an empty one.
entire_issue_json VARCHAR Every whole-issue rendition the detail lists, as a JSON array of the publisher's objects. NULL where no detail was read or the detail states no such list; [] where it states an empty one.
package_id VARCHAR The GovInfo CREC package id read from the file stem of the whole-issue link for part 1. NULL where the detail lists no part 1, or part 1 links under two stems.
package_id_rule VARCHAR How package_id was derived: entire_issue_url_stem/2.
article_count VARCHAR How many articles the detail says the issue has.
articles_url VARCHAR The publisher's URL for the issue's article list.
update_date VARCHAR The publisher's updateDate; the merge prefers the larger value.
url VARCHAR The publisher's own URL for this issue.
detail_read VARCHAR true where the Congress.gov detail route was read for this row, false where the row holds the list route's record only (a detail not yet reached under a run's cap, or refused). The one test of whether a detail was read: a list column cannot say it, because a read detail omits a list it does not state and the column is then NULL as for an unread one.