Calif. Broadband, Wireless Bills Near Finish Line

More detail is expected as soon as this week on the budget’s proposed $6 billion for broadband, including $3.75 billion for middle mile in unserved areas. The legislature passed a line-item budget last month, and an imminent trailer bill is expected to add information. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) earlier proposed $7 billion (see 2105140067). A Newsom spokesperson declined to comment Friday.

CASF bills are nearing final votes in their opposite chambers. SB-4 by Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D) cleared the Assembly Communications Committee 8-3 Wednesday and is headed to Appropriations. Senate Communications voted 11-1 Monday to send the similar AB-14 by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D) to the Governance and Finance Committee. There are no recent or planned amendments to SB-4, a Gonzalez spokesperson emailed Thursday.

Aguiar-Curry supports the legislature immediately passing the governor's proposal, she said. “Like anything else, there are details to work on going forward, but a generational investment in internet for all Californians should not be delayed because we’re fussing over minutiae.” Once the budget trailer bill is complete, the assemblymember will work with Gonzalez, the administration and legislative leaders "to tighten up the policy that accompanies this huge victory for our people."

Three telecom bills that preempt local governments passed final policy committees this past week, meaning they need only appropriators’ OK before going to the floor. The Senate Governance and Finance Committee voted 5-0 Thursday for the Assembly-passed AB-537, which would add a deemed-granted wireless remedy. The Assembly Communications Committee voted 11-1 Wednesday for SB-556 to codify an FCC $270 cap on annual small-cell attachment rates and shorten shot clocks, and 12-0 for SB-378 to require localities let fiber installers use microtrenching unless shown it would hurt health and safety. The California League of Cities opposes SB-556 despite recent amendments, and is neutral on the other two, a spokesperson said.

The budget could contain at least some CASF changes from the Gonzalez and Aguiar-Curry bills, including redefining "unserved" and making local governments eligible for funding, Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) Legislative Advocate Tracy Rhine said Friday. She expects the budget to pass first, with the governor and legislative leaders pushing to finish by Friday before a monthlong recess. Lawmakers would likely revise SB-4 and AB-14 to complement what’s in the budget, she said. The budget theoretically could moot the bills, but better politics might be to leave some changes for Gonzalez and Aguiar-Curry since they have been the issues’ champions, the lobbyist said.

RCRC supports the budget and SB-4. She has questions about how AB-14 would prioritize what areas get broadband, said Rhine. “We just want to make sure that it doesn’t disadvantage some of our rural counties.” AB-14 says that unserved areas eligible for funds need to have at least 90% of the population without a facilities-based provider with 25/3 Mbps, whereas SB-4 doesn’t set a percentage and includes a latency requirement, she said. The bills are similar in most other ways, with sponsors “way closer” than they were last year, said Rhine.

Lawmakers probably want to quickly finalize broadband spending in case Congress tries to pull back any American Rescue Plan money, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon. “I don’t foresee this going past July,” he said, although the session ends in September. The “star” of the budget is a proposed broadband fund to help municipalities, nonprofits and cooperatives with long-term financing, said Falcon: “It’s the biggest amount of money that’s ever been invested in alternative models for broadband ever in this country.” The EFF official expects a fight from big ISPs.

Small-Cells ‘Rehash’

SB-556 is a “rehash” of the small-cells bill vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) in 2017 (see 1710170026), said RCRC’s Rhine: Some amendments responded to local concerns, “but we continue to read the bill to take away any discretion of local governments to actually deny the siting of a wireless facility.”

Sen. Bill Dodd (D) previously amended his SB-556 “to allow local control over aesthetic concerns such as design and placement of telecommunications equipment on traffic, light and power poles,” a spokesperson responded. The bill will mean “more reliable and equitable access to high-speed internet service,” Dodd said.

Rural counties were opposed to SB-378 and AB-537 until recent amendments brought the group to neutral, said Rhine: Changes gave localities more discretion over the right of way and allowed them to review installations for health and safety concerns.

The three preemptive bills as a package are worse for local governments than 2017’s vetoed small-cells bill, but they show no sign of slowing down, said Best Best attorney Gail Karish. SB-556 got widespread local opposition “to no avail,” while AB-537 “went under the radar for a while,” she said. The Assembly bill would let construction start 30 days after the applicant provides notice, which she said isn’t enough time for thorough safety checks. SB-378 on microtrenching is another industry-sponsored bill premised on the false idea that local governments stand in the way of closing the digital divide, the local government lawyer said.

Assemblymember Bill Quirk (D) said he will "work with all stakeholders in good faith on any reasonable concerns,” including how his AB-537 can further clarify that it doesn’t affect federal rules. Federal law provides shot clocks and state law has a deemed-granted remedy, preventing permit delays at the local level, Quirk said. AB-537 “updates the shot clocks in which a local government must respond to a permit request” to comply with the FCC, and “provides clarity around the deemed approved process at the end of a shot clock and when an applicant can begin construction.”

Gonzalez responded to local concerns about SB-378 through earlier amendments, moving major municipal groups to neutral, her spokesperson said. The microtrenching bill is meant to speed up broadband deployment, said the spokesperson.