California's Open Access Bill Encounters A Hurdle, But Gathers Support

California's landmark open access bill, the California Taxpayer Access to Publicly Funded Research Act (AB 609), has stalled in the State Senate. But take heart—it is far from dead.

Due to some procedural glitches, the Senate Governmental Organization (G.O.) Committee hasn't been able to officially sign off on the bill. At last week's hearing, the bill barely missed out on a quorum, getting five yes votes and zero no votes. (The other members abstained.) However, the bill was granted reconsideration by the Chair of the G.O. That means the Committee will pick up the bill in January 2014, exactly where it left off.