cfredmond/congress_bill_tracker

Congress Bill Tracker

Congress Bill Tracker is a Django application that retrieves and stores information about bills from the Congress.gov API. It provides a simple way to track and analyze congressional bills and their latest actions.

Features

• Retrieves bill data from the Congress.gov API
• Stores bill information in a database
• Provides a user-friendly web interface to view the data

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/your-username/congress-bill-tracker.git
   cd congress-bill-tracker
   

2. Create and activate a virtual environment:

   python -m venv env
   source env/bin/activate  # For Linux/Mac
   env\Scripts\activate  # For Windows
   

3. Install the required dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

4. Set up the database:

   python manage.py migrate
   

5. Retrieve bill data from the Congress.gov API:

   python manage.py runcrons --force
   

   This command will fetch the latest bill data from the API and store it in the database.

6. Start the development server:

   python manage.py runserver
   

7. Access the application in your web browser at http://localhost:8000.

Configuration

• Update the SECRET_KEY, DEBUG, and CONGRESS_GOV_API_KEY settings in the .env file.