I want cosponsor names enetered into excel spreadsheet (by bill number) for the 109th & 110th Congresses with the limitation that it should pick up the greater of the first five cosponsors or all who cosponsored on the first available date.
HOW TO RETRIEVE COSPONSOR DATA
The links below lead to bills and resolutions for the 109th and 110th Congresses. First retrieve the bill number. Then for each bill that has cosponsors if you click on the "cosponsor" link it brings you to a page that lists the names of the cosponsors ALPHABETICALLY. However, we want them by date so be sure to click on the option that says "Sort: by Date"
FINAL PRODUCT
The excel file should consist of several columns. The first should be "Bill Number"; The second column should read Cosponsor 1; the next column heading should be "Cosponsor 2" etc. I am not sure what the maximum number of cosponsors will be...
DETAILS
IMPORTANT: we actually do not want the name of every cosponsor. Rather we want the GREATER of (1) The first 5 cosponsors sorted by date; OR (2) The names of every cosponsor who is listed as joining on the first available date.
(e.g., say a bill has 10 cosponsors 2 joined on day 1, the other 8 on subsequent days. We only want the first 5 names. However, say another bill also has 10 cosponsors but all of them joined on day 1 then you would list all 10)
Thank you!