California Democrats Make Peace on Net Neutrality After Progressive Backlash
California state lawmakers said they restored net neutrality legislation to full strength after the Assembly Communications Committee controversially stripped major provisions including on zero rating and requiring neutrality at the point of interconnection. That committee’s chair, Miguel Santiago (D), joined state Sen. Scott Wiener (D) for a Thursday news conference to announce a deal that Wiener said revived those and other key components. The Electronic Frontier Foundation and other original supporters of SB-822 applauded the agreement.
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Lawmakers will formally submit amendments reflecting the deal Aug. 6 when California lawmakers return from recess, Wiener said at the livestreamed news conference. The legislation “looks different” structurally, but Wiener didn’t give up any “key protections,” he said. The “crucial” provisions cut by Santiago’s committee are back, a Wiener spokesman emailed. “We did cut a couple of smaller provisions, like app-specific differential pricing and levels of quality service.” The lawmakers said they’re also are bringing back SB-460 to prohibit state contracts with ISPs that violate net neutrality principles. It missed a committee deadline, but the legislature can waive the procedural rule, the Wiener spokesman said.
“We are not out of the woods,” cautioned Wiener, predicting sustained resistance from telecom and cable industry lobbyists. Now that negotiations on language are finished, it’s time for “good old-fashioned politics” to get votes, said state Sen. Kevin de Leon (D), also part of the talks as sponsor of SB-460.
Santiago didn’t say what he gave up in negotiations. Cuts by his committee happened because lawmakers ran out of time to reach agreement, he said. Sometimes making policy “works in zigs and zags,” but state lawmakers “rolled up our sleeves” and “worked through our differences,” said Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D), who Wiener said came in to help facilitate the talks. Moving legislation “tends to be a series of fire drills” with many bills moving together with strict deadlines, Wiener said. “Sometimes you do need more time.”
Santiago stressed progressive credentials as he supported the measure, after big backlash from progressive groups, including claims he was helping President Donald Trump and acting as California’s FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The Trump administration “destroyed the internet because it knew … that the destruction of information sets us back years in a progressive fight,” Santiago said Thursday. He said his office received “a number of calls.”
EFF fully supports the legislation after the talks, said Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon. “While we ran into a brief setback initially in the Assembly, I appreciate the willingness of Assembly member Santiago to listen to his constituents and fight hard for a strong net neutrality bill.” The agreement “is a big win for forty million Californians, who stood up to a steady stream of misinformation from telecoms and big ISPs and mobilized to make sure legislators pass the strongest net neutrality protections of any state in the country,” emailed Demand Progress Campaign Director Robert Cruickshank. The group’s members made thousands of calls and “made it very clear to legislators that we would not accept efforts to water down this bill.”
"This state-specific approach remains bad policy, riddled with as many problems as a moldy piece of Swiss cheese," emailed Mike Montgomery, executive director of CALinnovates, an advocacy group with partners including AT&T and Uber. Other bill opponents didn’t comment.