A Rhode Island net neutrality bill is headed to the full Senate. The Commerce Committee voted 6-1 for SB-342 with technical changes at a hybrid hearing Thursday. Similar measures passed the Senate in 2018 and 2019, stalling in the House (see 2104290077). The Senate could vote as soon as Tuesday, SB-342 sponsor Sen. Louis DiPalma (D) told us. DiPalma expects it to get “overwhelming support as it has in the past.” He's “cautiously optimistic” about passing the bill in the House, which has a different speaker from the previous years when the bill died; the session ends June 30. DiPalma would welcome a federal law that supersedes this: Even if the FCC reverses its past net neutrality decision, it’s important to write the policy into law.
Colorado could soon become the third state with a comprehensive privacy law. Senators voted 34-0 Tuesday to concur with House amendments to SB-190. The House passed the bill 57-7 Monday. The Senate kept House changes including language clarifying that nothing in the law provides for a private right of action. The bill goes next to Gov. Jared Polis (D), whose office didn’t comment now. Polis is widely expected to sign, particularly given the wide voting margins in the House and Senate, said Ballard Spahr privacy attorney Greg Szewczyk in an interview. SB-190 follows Virginia’s model with much of the same terminology and big-picture requirements, so having Colorado as the third state law probably won’t significantly complicate U.S. privacy rules, he said. Unlike Virginia, but as in California, Colorado’s attorney general would have to make rules implementing the bill, he said: “As to how difficult compliance is going to be, that may have a significant impact.” One big difference with Virginia is that Colorado would allow enforcement by district attorneys in addition to the AG, Szewczyk noted. Colorado’s law is “a mixed bag” that lawmakers should seek to strengthen in future years, Common Sense Media Director-State Advocacy Joseph Jerome told us: “I don’t think it’s anybody’s dream privacy law, but ... it’s certainly a marked improvement over what was able to pass out of Virginia earlier this year.” DAs joining enforcement could be useful, he said. SB-190 has good parts, including requiring companies to honor browser privacy signals as an opt-out, but “the bill needs to be stronger to fully protect consumers, including by tightening up potential loopholes for targeted advertising, and clarifying that consumers can’t be charged for exercising their privacy rights,” emailed Consumer Reports Senior Policy Analyst Maureen Mahoney. Computer and Communications Industry Association Privacy Counsel Keir Lamont said “the prospect of an increasingly divergent set of state-level compliance obligations further underscores the need for federal action to establish baseline privacy rules.”
Arizona Corporation Commission members criticized Frontier Communications' 911 reliability, at a hybrid livestream and in-person meeting Tuesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 to investigate the carrier on recent 911 service outages (see 2106020063). “This is an urgent situation,” said ACC Chairwoman Lea Marquez Peterson (R). Commissioner Sandra Kennedy (D) said she isn’t surprised by Frontier's problems. When the probe is done, the commission should act “very strongly and not just do something to be doing it,” she said. Frontier must acknowledge this is a “public relations problem of enormous proportion,” said Commissioner Jim O’Connor (R). “Your house is burning down.” Senior Vice President-Regulatory Affairs Allison Ellis apologized for the company’s recent service issues and said the company is reviewing its network and systems to better support 911, with one strategy to find ways to increase redundancy. Public safety officials calling in later appeared unsatisfied. “To hear that they're going to do something is, I guess, OK,” but the problems are a “severe public safety concern,” said Saint Johns Police Department Chief Lance Spivey. He cited eight 911 failures there since 2017. Rural Arizonans “shouldn't have to worry about [if] 911 is going to work,” he said. In the past three years, the Navajo County Sheriffs Office submitted about 150 service tickets to Frontier about problems, said Lt. Alden Whipple. Outages affecting all of northeastern Arizona lasted hours, he said: “It’s just unacceptable.”
A federal judge peppered New York with questions on how the state’s law requiring $15 monthly low-income plans squares with the FCC 2018 net neutrality order. Judge Denis Hurley asked no questions of the ISPs challenging the policy at a teleconferenced oral argument Thursday in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York. Meanwhile, large telcos are seeking DSL exemptions from the law at the Public Service Commission.
ISPs protested a NARUC task force’s focus on electric utilities expanding into broadband. Utility officials at the group’s virtual meeting Wednesday applauded a proposed recommendation to reduce barriers to nontraditional providers. Don’t forget wireless or anchor institutions, said other commenters.
Texas legislators passed state USF, commission revamp and multiple broadband bills before Democrats walked out in protest Sunday of an elections bill. Lawmakers didn’t vote before the session’s dramatic finish on a bill (SB-12) opposed by internet companies to regulate social media, though it could be revived in a special session the governor sought for the election bill. The House voted 129-18 Friday to concur with Senate changes to the USF bill (HB-2667), which was passed unanimously last week by the other chamber (see 2105250042). Both chambers cleared a conference report Sunday on a bill (SB-2154) to add two commissioners to the Public Utility Commission, which would make it a five-member body (see 2105240014). Lawmakers also sent Gov. Greg Abbott (R) bills on telehealth (HB-4), broadband expansion (HB-5), pole replacements (HB-1505), highway right of way (SB-507) and electric utility middle mile (HB-3853). HB-2667's expanding the Texas USF contribution base to include VoIP is “a great tool to help stabilize the TUSF,” emailed Texas Statewide Telephone Cooperative CEO Weldon Gray. “Throughout the legislative process … there was clear intent established that should the PUC wish to move away from a revenue assessment to a more modern connections based methodology, they do have that authority under law.” TSTCI awaits a court decision on its suit against the PUC for letting the fund dwindle (see 2103290060), Gray said. “While HB 2667 does help give additional tools to the PUC as they fund the TUSF, there has been no action by the PUC as of this date to address funding current obligations, or to address the shortfall which has existed since January.”
ISPs’ lawsuit against New York’s broadband affordability law raises similar preemption issues to cases industry lost in other venues, but law experts disagreed in interviews which side would win. Plaintiffs at U.S. District Court for Eastern New York (case 21-cv-2389) make the same arguments that failed in Maine ISP privacy and California net neutrality cases, which are “structurally almost identical” to the New York case, argued Stanford Law School professor Barbara van Schewick. Former FCC General Counsel Thomas Johnson countered that 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals case law gives ISP plaintiffs an “additional arrow in their quiver.”
Internet industry groups sued Florida over its social media law that makes it unlawful for sites to deplatform political candidates and requires sites be transparent about policing. NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association sued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tallahassee. “The Act is so rife with fundamental infirmities that it appears to have been enacted without any regard for the Constitution,” they wrote. Our earlier news bulletin is here.
Internet industry groups sued Florida over its social media law that makes it unlawful for sites to deplatform political candidates and requires sites to be transparent about policing.
A state bill to authorize broadband and VoIP oversight by the New York Public Service Commission cleared the Assembly Corporations Commission at a livestreamed Tuesday hearing. The PSC would gain authority on broadband infrastructure resiliency, public safety and data collection under the bill (AB-7412), which goes next to Ways and Means Committee. The Republican side voted no and raised concerns about possible federal preemption and state-by-state regulation discouraging investment. Lawmakers learned in a recent storm that there's “very little regulation and ... we could use some,” said Chair Amy Paulin (D). The proposed law might end up in court like New York’s recent affordable broadband requirement (see 2105180044), said Paulin: she hopes the court will side with consumers. AARP, Consumer Reports and Communications Workers of America support AB-7412. The committee also split by party to clear AB-2396 to direct the PSC to set reasonable rates for cable and broadband pole attachments. It goes next to the Rules Committee.