Ok, actually, it's the New York Times which has developed an "API" for the U.S. Congress. Basically, the Times has munged together a bunch of data sources (see below) and developed an "API" to allow developers to access and use the data. The information you can get access to includes roll-call vote (voice and division votes are not available right now). The Times does extra calculations including party totals. In addition to vote data, the Times is also providing member data including the Congress number and chamber, as well as the member's title, state and party. The data sources include:

• The official Web site of the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, for vote data
• The official Web site of the United States Senate, for vote data
• The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, for member biographical information
• GovTrack.us, for member biographical information
• MIT Professor Charles Stewart's collection of Congressional data, for role information It'll be interesting to see how developers end up deploying this data. Equally, if not more interesting, is the social (and brand) value being generated by the New York Times in offering this service. By making an API to data available (especially such important data) - anyone in the world (who's also willing to abide by the NYT Terms and Conditions) can create an application using this data. The potential applications are as limitless as the brains with access to the data itself. With attribution requirements, the NYT will have its name everywhere as providing authoritative data on Congress. Without having thoroughly read the terms and conditions, this seems like a win for everyone. Except maybe members of congress, but WHATEVER. What kind of data do YOU have that someone might want to have access to? A website is one way to present that data, but an API to your data means that the network can take your raw data and run with it, creating applications, insights and conclusions you could only begin to imagine. With the right approach, you could generate unbelievable awareness for both your cause and your organization simply by Letting Your Data Go.