A lack of standard data formats and standard ways that government award recipients are identified causes confusion about the way government spends money, Hollister said. On USAspending.gov, the current website to track federal spending, the same award recipients come up multiple times during searches, because their names are spelled in multiple ways, he said.

"Because we don't have standard identifiers, we can't properly track federal spending," Hollister said. "We can't aggregate all the grants and contract awards a contractor receives."

The coalition members have services that use federal data, and standardization of formats would help their efforts, Hollister said. But beyond their business interests, better data transparency would allow U.S. residents to better understand their government and its budgets in this time of budget shortfalls, he said.

"The only way for citizens and the government to understand what's being spent is to track every dollar," he said.

The DATA Act, which has strong support from House of Representatives leadership, may see a vote on the House floor within a couple of weeks, Hollister said.