Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Tuesday, October 23, 2007

OA mandate at NIH passes the Senate

Tonight the Senate passed the Labor-HHS appropriations bill containing the provision to mandate OA at the NIH.  More, the vote was a veto-proof 75-19. 

Comments

  • Neither of the harmful Inhofe amendments was part of the final bill.
  • Yes, this is big, even if we cleared this hurdle only to face a Bush veto.
  • When the same language was adopted by the House (July 19, 2007), it only received 276 votes, when it needed 290 to be veto-proof.  Hence, it's not at all clear that the full Congress will be able to override a Bush veto, something both sides know very well.  However, as we go into post-veto strategies, we're much better off with this language having passed both houses than having passed only one.  More later.