By Bruce Wolfe, HANC President
Last month, Senator Scott Wiener and Senate Pro Tem Kevin de Leon tried to combine their respective California bills to save Net Neutrality, SB 822 and SB 460.. Wiener had a fight on his hands. His bill was introduced and moved through the Capitol sausage making machine, making it through the Senate but running into heavily-industry-financed legislators in the Assembly, who opposed the strong intent of the bill.
HANC has been working on Municipal Fiber for over a decade including measures to save Net Neutrality. Our colleagues and allies, including a retired CPUC attorney who had worked in this very area, all say Wiener's bill didn't go far or deep enough.
Makena Kelly, a reporter with The Verge, puts it quite right, "Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, chair of the Communications and Conveyance Committee, proposed his own amendments to the bill at the beginning of the meeting, morphing it into what Sen. Wiener called it a ‘fake net neutrality bill.’ AT&T is one of Assemblyman Santiago’s top donors, according to advocacy group Fight for the Future."
These amendments did change the bill substantively. SF Chronicle writers, Trisha Thadani and Melody Gutierrez, go on to explain, "Among the committee’s recommendations was to permit a controversial internet service provider practice called ‘zero rating,’ where some websites and apps don’t count against a consumer’s data allotment. Opponents view zero rating as a backdoor way of discriminating against online services that don’t strike free-data deals with broadband and wireless companies. But proponents say the subsidies help lower-income communities access data services."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/California-net-neutrality-bill-eviscerated-13011048.php
Back to the legislation-- when it came time for legislators sponsoring the bills to speak, they were halted by Santiago as he introduced these new amendments then limited speaking time to address the bill as amended, to the point of not giving the bill’s author, Wiener, a chance to speak at all.
Again, from the SF Chronicle article, "’What the committee just did was outrageous,’ Wiener said at the hearing. ‘These amendments eviscerated the bill — it is no longer a net neutrality bill. I will state for the record ... I think it was fundamentally unfair.’"
It is curious beyond this bill and its powerful industry opponents what other layers are in play, too. Seems that Wiener's bill was the only one being targeted. De Leon's bill was not affected by the same amendments and the Assembly committee wanted to keep them separate. Then there are some who believe Wiener is too maverick, maybe supports too much of the Governor's issues and appears to spin moderate-conservative legislation as liberal-progressive among other things.