You might want to check out this new blog from the White House on public access to federally-funded scholarly research. They are seeking comments through Jan. 7th:

http://blog.ostp.gov/category/public-access-policy/

A bill banning public access policies like the one recently enacted by the National Institutes of Health was introduced to Congress last week, as reported in Library Journal.

The article takes a look at related issues: changes in Congress and the White House, and the departure of public access advocate Elias Zerhouni from the NIH.