Version 2.1.1 of the schema, the schema review guide, updated CSS, and sample files for committee legislative reports and conference reports are available in the proposed branch. Please refer to CHANGELOG.md for a summary of proposed changes.

Versions 2.0.14, 2.0.15, 2.0.16, 2.0.17, and 2.1.0 of the schema are available in the main branch.

Version 2.39 2026-05-11 of the CSS is available in the main branch.

USLM Schema

In support of the United States Legislative Branch XML Working Group and in accordance with 2 U.S.C. 181, the Government Publishing Office (GPO) is making the United States Legislative Markup (USLM) XML schema available as an authoritative source on GitHub. See also the Standardized Formats for Legislative Documents, USLM section of Reports on Legislative Branch Innovation Hub.

Schema Versions

Approved versions of the schema are in the main branch. If there are proposed changes to the schema, the changes will be in a proposed branch as a new draft version of the schema. A major.minor.point structure is used to identify the schema version, and the schema version is recorded as an attribute at the root level. The point number is incremented to indicate a non-breaking change while the minor number is incremented to indicate a breaking change. Breaking changes will only be implemented after all other options have been exhausted. Please refer to CHANGELOG.md for a summary of changes.

Proposed Branch

As needed, a proposed branch will be created from the main branch. In addition to the files from the main branch, the proposed branch may also contain draft versions of the USLM 2.x schema, draft sample files, and draft CSS files.

User Guide and Review Guide

Please refer to the USLM User Guide in PDF or Markdown, the USLM 2.x Review Guide in PDF or Markdown, the USLM 2.0.17 Review Guide in PDF or Markdown, and the USLM 2.1 Review Guide in PDF or Markdown for additional information about the schema.

XML Working Group Schema Management Guidelines

The XML Working Group manages the USLM schema under the following guidelines.

• When changes are made to the schema as a result of ongoing XML modeling activities or other proposals, new point releases will be made available on GovInfo and in the Proposed branch of the USLM GitHub repository.
• Upon approval from the XML Working Group, USLM schema files in the USLM GitHub repository Proposed branch will be moved into the Main branch.
• Updates to the User Guide and other supporting materials in the USLM GitHub repository will be made as needed.
• As in the past, every effort will be made not to create breaking changes. If a breaking change is deemed necessary, the first digit in the version number will be incremented, and appropriate documentation will be created to describe the differences.
• All adopted versions of the schema will continue to be made available on GovInfo and in the USLM GitHub repository.
• USLM XML files may validate against any of the adopted schema versions.

Feedback

To submit feedback, questions, or comments, please open a GitHub issue.