Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) introduced legislation in early May that would require many federal agencies to ensure that articles resulting from funded research are made freely available online within 6 months of publication. The Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA) would apply to agencies with extramural research budgets of more than $100 million and would include the National Science Foundation and the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, and Transportation, among others.
You can read the full text of the Act at Senator Cornyn’s web site. For more information and links, see the special web page on FRPAA created by The Alliance for Taxpayer Access. The Association of American Publishers is one of the publishing groups who has voiced opposition to the Act.