Joshua Tauberer is the “grandfather” of the open-data movement for the U.S. Congress and a “data crusader”. 

GovTrack.us, launched in 2004, was the first website to apply the principles of open data and Web 2.0 to the U.S. Congress. It catalyzed the development of a community of like-minded developers and shaped the data-oriented open government movement that we see today.

See: Marshall Kirkpatrick.  "Data Hacker Pageranks Members of the US Congress." ReadWriteWeb. Dec. 27, 2010.

See: Dirty Energy Money.

See: Budget Proposals Follow Energy Influence: Obama Goes After Producers, Sen. Paul Goes After Regulators | MAPLight.org - Money and Politics