Bush vetoes bill with open-access provision

President Bush of the USA has vetoed the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2008. He said that this bill, which includes the requirement for National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research to be made open access, is too expensive and contains too many earmarks.

‘This bill spends too much. It exceeds the reasonable and responsible levels for discretionary spending that I proposed to balance the budget by 2012,’ said Bush. The bill is said to be nearly $10 billion more than the President's request.

Open-access (OA) advocate Peter Suber points out in his blog that the bill was vetoed for its high level of spending, not for its OA provision. ‘If Congress overrides the veto, then the OA mandate language will become law. Just like that. If Congress fails to override the veto, and modifies the LHHS appropriation instead, then the OA mandate is likely to survive intact,’ he commented in his OA newsletter.