/bill/{congress} API Endpoint Not Sorting By Latest Action Appropriately

[ModerateAdmin]

Hello,

I am noticing that the "/bill/{congress}" endpoint does not sort by latest action.... When I now make a request for the most recent bills in congress by latestAction thru this request url:

https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/119?format=json&offset=0&limit=250&fromDateTime=2026-01-15T00%3A00%3A00Z&toDateTime=2026-01-20T23%3A59%3A00Z&api_key=XXXXXX

This request response gives these results:

{
"bills": [
{
"congress": 119,
"latestAction": {
"actionDate": "2025-01-03",
"actionTime": "18:12:02",
"text": "Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection."
},
"number": "5",
"originChamber": "House",
"originChamberCode": "H",
"title": "Adopting the Rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Nineteenth Congress, and for other purposes.",
"type": "HRES",
"updateDate": "2026-01-15",
"updateDateIncludingText": "2026-01-15",
"url": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/119/hres/5?format=json"
},
{
"congress": 119,
"latestAction": {
"actionDate": "2025-12-09",
"text": "Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held."
},
"number": "186",
"originChamber": "House",
"originChamberCode": "H",
"title": "Hershel Woody Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act",
"type": "HR",
"updateDate": "2026-01-15",
"updateDateIncludingText": "2026-01-15",
"url": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/119/hr/186?format=json"
},
{
"congress": 119,
"latestAction": {
"actionDate": "2025-01-03",
"text": "Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources."
},
"number": "41",
"originChamber": "House",
"originChamberCode": "H",
"title": "Unrecognized Southeast Alaska Native Communities Recognition and Compensation Act",
"type": "HR",
"updateDate": "2026-01-16",
"updateDateIncludingText": "2026-01-16",
"url": "https://api.congress.gov/v3/bill/119/hr/41?format=json"
},
...
}

In this output, the latestAction dates are not in order. Online it says "Returns a list of bills filtered by the specified congress, sorted by date of latest action." The full list that I returned from this request (full results not shown) is in no way organized by latest action at all.

Fix this bug?

[apreiter18]

@ModerateAdmin - thanks, I've opened a ticket to investigate this. Please check the change log in coming weeks for updates.

[ModerateAdmin]

@apreiter18 any update when this might get resolved? Thanks :)

[apreiter18]

@ModerateAdmin - I am aiming for Monday, April 6