A bill that is word-for-word identical to another bill. Bills are characterized as identical to each other at the introduced stage only, even though a later (e.g., reported or passed) version of a bill might meet the same criteria for text similarity. Companion measures, procedurally-related measures, and legislation with text similarities are other related bill types.

A related bill may be a companion measure, an identical bill, a procedurally-related measure, or one with text similarities. Bill relationships are identified by the House, the Senate, or CRS, and refer only to same-Congress measures.