[gizmo686]

Why not refer to the bill as H.R.3361.

For anyone interested, here is the bill in question: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3361

[kijin]

Hashes would make it a lot easier to detect sneaky last-minute changes.

[dllthomas]

At the same time, though, you lose the thread if you miss any "X is the next version of Y" update. Probably HR-number-hash would be ideal.

[mgkimsal]

or maybe just 'version numbers'.

HR3361.4 HR3361.5 HR3361.6

etc

Easier for everyone to understand, not just geeks...

[dllthomas]

People get tempted to play shenanigans like reusing numbers.

[mgkimsal]

datetime?

HR3361.20141106142502

almost as bad as hash, but immediately parseable and understood if a version was before or after something else.