API REFERENCE

Free, open REST API for congressional accountability data — campaign finance, stock trades, voting records, travel disclosures, and legislation. Data from CongressWatch, rebuilt daily from public records.

Quick StartAuthenticationRate LimitsResponse FormatData NotesPublicMembersGlobal

QUICK START

curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  https://api.opensourceforall.com/api/v1/members/P000197/trades

Get a free API key →

AUTHENTICATION

Send your key in the X-API-Key header. Two endpoints are public: /v1/members and /v1/stats. Invalid keys return 401; exceeding your rate limit returns 429.

X-API-Key: osp_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

RATE LIMITS

Tier	Limit	Who
free	1,000 req/hr	Anyone
discounted	10,000 req/hr	Educators, nonprofits, researchers
paid	10,000 req/hr	Commercial use

RESPONSE FORMAT

Lists are paginated and wrapped with a meta block; single objects return only data. Pagination: page (default 1), per_page (default 50, max 100).

{
  "data": [ ... ],
  "meta": { "page": 1, "per_page": 50, "total": 536 }
}

DATA NOTES

Field names are CongressWatch's native ones, passed through unchanged. A few shapes will surprise you:

Field	Type	Note
cash_on_hand	string	Preformatted currency, e.g. $1,234,567 — not a number.
amount (trades)	string \| null	A disclosure bracket, e.g. $15,001 - $50,000. Null on ~231 rows.
district	string	Empty string for senators. Always a string, never a number.
total_raised	number \| null	Null for 69 of 536 members with no resolved FEC record.
dates	string	Mostly ISO (YYYY-MM-DD); some legacy trade/travel rows are MM/DD/YYYY.

Coverage is uneven by design — trades exists for 124 members, travel for 307. A member with no trades returns an empty list, not a 404.

PUBLIC ENDPOINTS

LIVE

GET/api/v1/membersPUBLIC

The leaderboard — every sitting member with their anomaly score. No API key required.

QUERY PARAMETERS

Name	Type	Description
chamber	string	House or Senate
party	string	Republican, Democratic, Independent
state	string	Full state name
min_score	int	Minimum anomaly score (0–100)
search	string	Case-insensitive name substring
sort	string	field.direction, e.g. score.desc (score\|name\|state\|total_raised)

EXAMPLE RESPONSE

{
  "data": [{
    "id": "B001288",
    "name": "Cory A. Booker",
    "party": "Democratic",
    "state": "New Jersey",
    "chamber": "Senate",
    "score": 32,
    "total_raised": 5107416.85
  }],
  "meta": { "page": 1, "per_page": 50, "total": 9 }
}

LIVE

GET/api/v1/statsPUBLIC

Corpus-wide totals and the last pipeline run. No API key required.

EXAMPLE RESPONSE

{
  "data": {
    "total_members": 537,
    "members_with_scores": 509,
    "last_updated": "2026-07-13T09:18:39.759170"
  }
}

MEMBER ENDPOINTS

Each takes a bioguide ID (e.g. P000197) and requires an API key.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}AUTH

The full vault for one member — every data block in a single object.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/scoreAUTH

Anomaly score with six weighted components, recomputed from live inputs. Returns stored, total, and drift.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/tradesAUTH

Disclosed stock trades (STOCK Act periodic transaction reports), newest first. Filter by ticker, type.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/votesAUTH

Recorded floor votes via GovTrack.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/billsAUTH

Bills sponsored or cosponsored, with ALEC similarity and donor-interest analysis.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/travelAUTH

Privately sponsored foreign travel disclosures.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/donorsAUTH

Top individual donors from FEC filings, largest first (native field: top_donors_list).

LIVE

GET/api/v1/members/{bioguide_id}/financesAUTH

Campaign finance summary. cash_on_hand is a preformatted string, not a number.

GLOBAL ENDPOINTS

Cross-member queries. Each row carries the member it belongs to (bioguide_id, member_name, party, state, chamber).

LIVE

GET/api/v1/tradesAUTH

Every disclosed trade across all members (6,800+), newest first. Filter by ticker, type, chamber, party, state, start_date, end_date.

LIVE

GET/api/v1/billsAUTH

Every tracked bill across all members (5,200+), newest first. Filter by congress, keyword, chamber, party, min_alec_similarity (0–1).