Biding Its Time

Due to Congress's attention on the healthcare reform bill, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009 is languishing in a Senate committee, according to The Scientist. FRPAA was introduced in June by Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) and would make federally-funded research freely accessible by the general public. The bill would include research funded by the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. "The quicker we get the largest corpus of science material out there and publically accessible, the greater the opportunity there is for it to be used. Sooner is better, and sooner is likely to occur if we take a FRPAA-type of action," says David Shulenburger, from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities.