California Lawmakers Send Net Neutrality Proposal To The Governor
Source: Los Angeles Times, Jazmine Ulloa
Photo: Proponents of net neutrality protest against Federal Communication Commission Chairman Ajit Pai in May in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Nearly nine months after federal regulators voted to do away with net neutrality rules instituted under the Obama administration, state lawmakers are on the verge of bringing them back to California.
The state Senate on Friday sent a broad proposal to Gov. Jerry Brown that would prevent broadband and wireless companies from favoring some websites over others by charging for faster speeds and from blocking, throttling or otherwise hindering access to content.
At a press conference later that day, lawmakers said California should be setting the national standard on internet policy and vowed to persuade the governor to sign the legislation, calling it vital to the state’s resistance to the Trump administration.
“Make no mistake about it, it was a hard-fought battle,” Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said. “But… we’re going to make the strongest case to the governor to sign this bill because this is essential to our democracy. We know our progressive values will be prevail.”
Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who introduced the bill, said this was not “a battle of the titans,” or Facebook versus AT&T, as characterized by the telecom industry. It was a battle to level the playing field for small and mid-sized businesses, activists and others who couldn’t pay their way out of internet “slow lanes,” he said.
“Fundamentally, net neutrality is that we as individuals get to decide where to go on the internet as opposed to being told,” Wiener said, echoing his comments on the Senate floor.
The legislation moved out with a 27-12 vote and little debate, capping months of aggressive feuding between tech advocates and telecom industry lobbyists.
Legislators clashed on the Assembly floor a day earlier over whether the state should step in to fill a role some said was best left to the federal government. To opponents, the rules represented burdensome, harsh regulations on companies; for proponents, they were strong and necessary protections for consumers.
On Friday, tech activists and advocacy groups hailed the passage as a landmark move toward fair and free access to the internet, saying other states were sure to follow.
“When California acts, the world pays attention,” said Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick, who has researched net neutrality for more than a decade and testified multiple times in favor of the legislation. “SB 822 is the only state-level bill that truly restores all the 2015 net neutrality protections. That’s what makes it so special.”
Telecom industry groups and lobbyists warned the bill would be challenged in federal court.
“Governor Brown should use his veto pen on this legislation, and Congress should step in to legislate and provide consumer protections that will resolve this issue once and for all,” said Jonathan Spalter, president and chief executive of USTelecom, a Washington-based lobby group.
California is one of 29 states to consider net neutrality protections since the Federal Communications Commission voted late last year to reverse the Obama-era internet regulations. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Trump, and Republicans have called for an end to the utility-like oversight of internet service providers.
The rules, enacted in February 2015 and ended in June, barred broadband and wireless companies such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon from selling faster delivery of some data, slowing speeds for certain content or favoring selected websites over others.
Senate Bill 822 reinstates the same regulations. But it also goes further by restricting some zero-rated data plans, or package deals that allow companies such as Verizon or Comcast to exempt some calls, texts or other content from counting against a customer’s data plan.
The legislation primarily prohibits plans that exempt the same type of content from some companies over others — video streamed on YouTube but not Hulu, for example. The bill also tasks the state attorney general with evaluating potential evasion of the net neutrality rules on a case-by-case basis.
An additional proposal, Senate Bill 460, by Sen. Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) was shelved in the state Assembly. It would have denied public contracts to companies that fail to follow the new state internet rules, but it sunk amid opposition over last-minute amendments.
On Friday, he and other legislators said they worked with the state attorney general’s office to make SB 822 legal proof and were prepared to battle the telecom industry in court.
Sen. Ling Ling Chang, of Diamond Bar, was the lone Republican to vote for the bill in the state Senate. But the legislation received overwhelming and bipartisan support in the Assembly, as opposition to the federal rollback of the rules has remained overwhelmingly bipartisan.
“The bottom line is this,” De León said. “The internet is vital to our democracy because it is part of our daily lives.