Open Access: it's the law

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.

signed into law on Wednesday December 26, 2007

Based on my understanding of the US political system, this involves the bill's hand being shaken and possibly streamers and balloons

Widely reported.  I'm sure there will be lots, and lots of coverage over on Open Access News.