The federal government, and thus US taxpayers, provide more money for scientific research than any other single entity. In order to provide access to these paper to scientists and the public alike, the National Institutes of Health adopted a policy in which research it funded would be made open access one year after its publication in journals, even those that are normally subscription only. Many publishers were not amused, and have pushed Congress to reverse the policy. So far, those efforts have failed, but that hasn't stopped this year's Congress from trying again.

This year's version, entitled the Research Works Act, is remarkably simplified compared to previous versions. Its two clauses would require that everyone involved in the paper—all authors, the institutions they worked at, and, most significantly, the publisher—agree before a work can be made open access by the NIH or other federal agencies. As some journals have supported the policy, this would create chaos, because it would be impossible to tell which works would be made open access without a list of every publisher's policy.

This time, however, the attempt seems to have drawn more attention from both the mainstream press and scientific community; one scientist has even looked into the campaign donations given to one of the bill's supporters. Given that past bills never got very far, the additional resistance will probably be enough to keep this year's from passing.