Collections API returning an outdated 'lastModified' date for many bills after 12-21-18

[aih]

A query of the Collections API for recent bills returns many bills whose 'lastModified' date seems to be frozen at 12-21-2018, though their status XML has a later date, and updated information (e.g. P.L. numbers).

An illustrative example, from the query https://api.govinfo.gov/collections/BILLS/2018-12-10T20:18:10Z/2019-02-09T19:20:10Z?offset=0&pageSize=10000, is the value for item 1750, corresponding to packageId: "BILLS-115hr1733enr". The item has the following object, with lastModified: 2018-12-21T02:27:00Z:

1750:
{
   packageId: "BILLS-115hr1733enr",
   lastModified: "2018-12-21T02:27:00Z",
   packageLink: "https://api.govinfo.gov/…LLS-115hr1733enr/summary",
   docClass: "hr",
   title: "An Act To direct the Sec…f used lubricating oil.",
   congress: "115"
}

The billstatus API for this bill, however, has an updateDate of 2019-01-21T17:31:40Z, and new information (including a P.L. number of 115-345). (see https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/BILLSTATUS/115/hr/BILLSTATUS-115hr1733.xml)

This mismatch seems to apply to bills after 12-20-2018, and before some time in January. I am assuming that the 'lastModified' date relates to the package itself and is being updated when, e.g. a P.L. number is added for an enrolled bill.

[aih]

Question: is the lastModified date of the package supposed to be the same as the updateDate of the billstatus (and the formattedLastModified field in the query to https://www.govinfo.gov/bulkdata/json/BILLSTATUS)?

[jonquandt]

@aih - no, the lastModified date for the bills package will not be the same as the dates associated with the BILLSTATUS package. Each version of the bill is stored as a separate package, containing the content and metadata associated with that version ( such as the Enrolled Bill you referenced above).

The BILLSTATUS package looks at the bill across the various versions, including actions related to the bill, so the updates for the BILLSTATUS file will not directly line up with any one version of the BILLS, especially in the case of actions that do not create or modify an existing bill version.

For instance, “Became Public Law” and “Signed by President” are actions associated with the bill overall, but would not affect the content or metadata within an individual Bill version.

Let me know if there’s anything I can clarify.