Open Access bill in the Senate gets further support in academe
Current legislation requiring that all government agency research be open access (within six months of publication elsewhere) is under consideration in the Senate. The Federal Public Research Access Act was fiercely opposed by scholarly societies who fear revenue loss.
The academic community wants open access. In July, research universities spoke up and now, a group of liberal arts colleges have as well. Publishers are also responding to the OA movement: American Chemical Society is now offering an "author choice" program where authors can, for a fee, publish their articles with ACS in an open access mode.
http://insidehighered.com/news/2006/09/06/access/