OA Mandate at NIH passes the Senate

From Open Access News - with apologies for duplication, as Peter Suber says, this is big:

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

• It appears that neither of the harmful Inhofe amendments was part of the final bill, but I'm still trying to find out.
• 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, Congress might or might not 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.