va-lis-client

Python client for the Virginia Legislative Information System (LIS) REST API.

Built from live API responses — the official OpenAPI specs are unreliable (response envelope keys, field casing, and parameter behavior all differ from the docs).

• Developer portal: https://lis.virginia.gov/developers
• API key registration: https://lis.virginia.gov/apiregistration
• Help desk: lis@dlas.virginia.gov

Installation

pip install va-lis-client

With Redis rate limiting support:

pip install "va-lis-client[rate-limiting]"

Quick start

import os
from va_lis_client import LISClient

# Pass the key directly, or set the LIS_API_KEY environment variable
client = LISClient(api_key="your-api-key-here")
# or: os.environ["LIS_API_KEY"] = "your-key"; client = LISClient()

# The GA's current working session. During the interim this is the
# *upcoming* session, not the one that just ended — see
# "Bill identity & carry-over" below.
session = client.get_default_session()

# All bills in that session
bills = client.get_session_bills(session_code=int(session.SessionCode))

# Full detail for a bill
bill = client.get_bill(legislation_id=98525)

# Bill text (HTML) and summaries
texts = client.get_bill_text_detail(legislation_id=98525, session_code=20261)
summaries = client.get_bill_summaries(legislation_number="HB1", session_code=20261)

Authentication

Every request sends a WebAPIKey header with a partner GUID obtained at https://lis.virginia.gov/apiregistration.

Set the key via environment variable:

export LIS_API_KEY=your-guid-here

Or pass it directly to the constructor:

client = LISClient(api_key="your-guid-here")

Important: Heartbeat endpoints accept any key — even garbage. Use client.check_api_key() to actually validate a key via the PartnerAuthentication service.

Data availability

• The session reference list reaches back to 1994.
• Bill data has been observed working for the 2024–2027 sessions (as of Aug 2026). Earlier guidance said only 2025–2026 was authorized via the API.
• Older session data is available as legacylis.virginia.gov CSV downloads.
• No rate limits are documented anywhere.

Identifier cheat-sheet

Bills are uniquely identified by session + bill number, but the API uses several overlapping identifiers:

Bill identity & carry-over

Virginia's even-year sessions may carry unfinished bills over into the following odd-year session — never the reverse, never twice, and never across a two-year General Assembly term. The API models this by reusing the LegislationID (confirmed against the live API, 2026-08-12):

• A carried-over bill appears in both sessions' get_session_bills lists with the same LegislationID (e.g. HB9, ID 98631, in 20261 and 20271).
• get_bill(legislation_id) returns top-level SessionCode/SessionID as None. The Sessions list carries one cross-ref per session the bill appears in — both the even and odd session for a carried-over bill — and is the explicit lineage record.
• So LegislationID identifies the logical bill within a GA term: at most two session appearances (even, then odd if continued). Session-scoped identity is (SessionCode, LegislationNumber) or (SessionCode, LegislationID).
• An odd-year bill list starts as pure carry-over — as of Aug 2026, 20271 returned 443 bills, every one sharing its ID with 20261. Continued bills must be acted on by mid-November of the even year or they die, so expect that set to shrink before the odd session convenes.

Sync warning: if you mirror bills into a database, don't put a global unique constraint on LegislationID — the first odd-year sync will violate it on the first carried-over bill. Scope uniqueness to (session, LegislationID).

Default session: get_default_session() tracks the GA's working session, not the last one convened. Once a session wraps up (sine die, veto session, enactments effective July 1), the default advances to the upcoming session during the interim — by Aug 2026 it was already 20271, which is where continued bills and (from mid-November) new prefiles accumulate. For retrospective work on a just-ended session, pass its explicit session code.

Response envelope gotchas

The docs say ListItems everywhere. Reality:

API services

Currently implemented

Session (/Session/api/)

• get_sessions(year) → list of sessions for a year
• get_default_session() → the current/active session

Legislation (/Legislation/api/)

• get_session_bills(session_code) → lightweight bill list for a session
• get_bill(legislation_id) → full bill detail with all patrons
• get_legislation_statuses() → all 52 status reference entries

LegislationText (/LegislationText/api/)

• get_legislation_versions() → 13 version type references (Introduced, Enrolled, etc.)
• get_bill_texts(legislation_number, session_code) → text version list
• get_bill_text_detail(legislation_id, session_code) → full HTML bill text

LegislationSummary (/LegislationSummary/api/)

• get_bill_summaries(legislation_number, session_code) → bill summaries (HTML)

LegislationEvent (/LegislationEvent/api/)

• get_bill_events(legislation_id) → chronological action history for a bill
• get_event_types() → ~3,900 event type references
• get_actor_types() → 5 actor types (House, Senate, Committee, etc.)

Modeled but not yet wired to client methods

Schedule (/Schedule/api/)

The master meeting calendar. All committee hearings, caucuses, floor sessions.

Key fields: ScheduleDate, ScheduleTime (often free-text like "15 minutes after the Senate adjourns"), RoomDescription, OwnerName (committee), IsCancelled, ScheduleType (Committee/Chamber/Conference/Caucus/Docket/Other).

Data quality warning: ScheduleTime is frequently free-text, not a parseable time. The API faithfully reflects whatever the LIS clerks entered.

Calendar (/Calendar/api/)

Floor calendars (both chambers) and committee dockets (Senate only).

Important: Dockets are Senate-only. The House uses Calendars. Requesting a docket with chamberCode=H returns HTTP 400 with the message "Dockets can only be for ChamberCode = S".

Docket detail includes:

• DocketCategories → DocketItems → bills with summaries and patrons
• CommitteeMember roster with roles (Chair, etc.)
• Staff assignments
• Schedules (linked back to the Schedule service for when/where)
• PDF/JSON file downloads

Calendar detail includes:

• CalendarCategories → Agendas → bills with vote tallies
• AgendaItems → VoteMember with per-member vote responses (Y/N)
• Order of business (Call to Order, Invocation, etc.)

Committee (/Committee/api/)

Key fields: CommitteeID, CommitteeNumber (e.g. H14, S02), Name, ChamberCode, Abbreviation, MeetingNote, ParentCommitteeID (for subcommittees).

Not yet explored

These services exist in the portal but haven't been investigated:

• AdvancedLegislationSearch
• CommunicationFileGeneration
• Contact
• LegislationByMember
• LegislationCollections
• LegislationCommunications
• LegislationFileGeneration
• LegislationPatron
• LegislationSubject
• Member
• MemberVoteSearch
• MembersByCommittee
• MinutesBook
• Organization
• Person
• Personnel

How meetings/dockets work

Committee ──→ Docket (Senate) or Calendar (House) ──→ Schedule ──→ Room
              │                                        │
              │ has DocketItems/Agendas               │ has ScheduleDate,
              │ (which bills are up)                   │ ScheduleTime (free-text!),
              │                                        │ RoomDescription,
              └────────────────────────────────────────│ IsCancelled
                                                       └──→ VoteRoom reference

• Schedule is the "when and where" — but ScheduleTime is often free-text like "15 minutes after adjournment"
• Docket/Calendar is the "what" — which bills are on the agenda
• Committee is the "who" — membership, chair, staff

How a bill becomes law (Virginia)

A bill's lifecycle through the General Assembly, mapped to LIS status IDs. Virginia has a bicameral legislature (House of Delegates + Senate). A bill must pass both chambers in identical form before going to the Governor.

The happy path

                      ORIGINATING CHAMBER
                      ───────────────────
┌─ Prefiled (Nov–Jan) ──→  Introduced (1)
│                              │
│                              ▼
│                        In Committee (2)
│                         ┌────┴────┐
│                         │         │
│                    In Subcommittee  Left In Committee (20)
│                       (19)         = dead, session ends
│                         │
│                         ▼
│                     Reported Out (3 or 52)
│                     Committee votes to send
│                     bill to the full chamber
│                              │
│                              ▼
│                      Floor vote in originating chamber
│                      Passed House (4) or Passed Senate (5)
│
│                       CROSSING OVER
│                       ─────────────
│                     Bill goes to the other chamber
│                     and repeats: Committee → Floor
│                              │
│                              ▼
│                      Passed Both Chambers (6, 39, 40)
│                      = "Enrolled" version created (ER)
│                              │
│                              ▼
│
│                        GOVERNOR
│                        ────────
│                     Communicated (13) → With Governor (7)
│                              │
│                              ▼
│                     Awaiting Governor's Action (38)
│                         ┌────┼────────────┐
│                         │    │             │
│                         ▼    ▼             ▼
│                    Approved  Gov's      Gov's Veto
│                      (8)   Recommend.   (24, 26)
│                       │    (23, 27)        │
│                       ▼       │            ▼
│                    Enacted    ▼         Override vote
│                     (36)   Chambers      or bill dies
│                       │    adopt? (33)
│                       ▼       │
│                    Acts of    ▼
│                    Assembly  Back to
│                    Chapter   Enrolled
│                     (25)
└────────────────────────────────────────────────

Key status groups

Filing & introduction:

Committee phase — where most bills die:

Floor votes:

Conference — when the two chambers passed different versions:

Passed both chambers:

Governor pipeline:

Terminal / carry-over:

Why there are 52 statuses for ~15 states

LIS uses separate status IDs to track how a bill entered a logical state. For example, "In Conference" has four IDs distinguishing whether the conference just started, the report was agreed, rejected, or continued. The Name (internal) captures the sub-reason; the DisplayName (user-facing) collapses them.

Version-linked statuses

Some statuses have a LegislationVersionID indicating which bill text version corresponds to that state:

Rate limiting (optional)

If you're running many workers and want to share a global rate limit across them, install the rate-limiting extra and use try_acquire_request_permit:

pip install "va-lis-client[rate-limiting]"

import redis
from va_lis_client.rate_limiter import try_acquire_request_permit

r = redis.from_url("redis://localhost:6379/0")

if try_acquire_request_permit(redis_client=r, rate_limit=100):
    client.get_session_bills(session_code=20261)
else:
    # back off
    ...

Or set REDIS_URL and LIS_RATE_LIMIT environment variables and call with no arguments — the module picks them up automatically.

Windows / government CA roots

On Windows, Python's OpenSSL doesn't automatically load system certificates, which can cause SSL errors when connecting to hosts with enterprise or government CA roots. va-lis-client includes a SystemCertSSLAdapter that loads the system certificate store automatically, so no manual cert bundling is needed.

Package structure

src/va_lis_client/
├── __init__.py         # re-exports LISClient, LISClientError
├── client.py           # HTTP client — returns Pydantic models
├── exceptions.py       # LISClientError
├── http.py             # SystemCertSSLAdapter + shared requests session
├── rate_limiter.py     # optional Redis-based rate limiter
└── models/
    ├── __init__.py     # re-exports all models
    ├── common.py       # Heartbeat, Partner
    ├── session.py      # Session, SessionEvent
    ├── legislation.py  # Patron, Legislation, LegislationStatus, ...
    ├── text.py         # LegislationTextItem, LegislationTextDetail, ...
    ├── event.py        # LegislationEvent, LegislationEventType, ActorType
    ├── committee.py    # Committee, CommitteeMember, CommitteeAction
    ├── schedule.py     # Schedule, ScheduleType, MeetingRoom
    ├── calendar.py     # CalendarDetail, Agenda, VoteMember, ...
    └── docket.py       # DocketDetail, DocketItem, DocketCategory, ...

License

MIT