California Legislature Passes CASF, 988 Bills
California bills to require wireless eligibility for California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grants and to fund the 988 mental health line passed the legislature Thursday and will go to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for signature. As California legislators head into their final week, several communications bills on broadband, social media and free inmate calls await floor votes (see 2208120039).
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Assembly members voted 75-0 to concur with the Senate-amended CASF bill. The Assembly voted 64-0 after the Senate voted 38-0 earlier Thursday for AB-988 to implement the national 988 suicide prevention hotline with an 8-cent monthly surcharge on wireline, wireless and VoIP lines. Newsom doesn’t “typically comment on pending legislation,” the governor’s spokesperson said Friday. “They will be evaluated on their merits.”
Besides requiring wireless eligibility for broadband cash, AB-2749 would set a 180-day shot clock for the California Public Utilities Commission to decide CASF applications -- or else they would be deemed granted. Industry groups including USTelecom and CTIA support AB-2749, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation said earlier it will probably seek Newsom’s veto due to concerns the shot clock could limit competition and the wireless requirement might conflict with NTIA's fiber preference for federal infrastructure law funding.
“Allowing flexibility to deploy the technology that best fits the needs of a particular region, consistent with the objectives of the bipartisan Infrastructure Act, is a positive step towards universal connectivity in California,” Wireless Infrastructure Association CEO Patrick Halley said Friday.
Counties are no longer opposed to AB-2749 after it was amended, Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC) and California State Association of Counties wrote Aug. 18 to sponsor Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva (D). “Although we remain concerned about the timing of the CPUC resolution process and the funding of non-fiber deployment projects, we believe the amended language is sufficiently improved that we are neutral on the bill.”
The Senate made many edits to AB-988, including to require that phone centers use technology allowing for transfers between 988 centers and 911 public safety answering points and to require appointment of a 988 system director and technical advisory board, said a bill analysis released Thursday. The amended bill would require 988 surcharge revenue to prioritize 988 centers first and mobile crisis teams second, while prohibiting fund diversion to unrelated purposes. And California would appropriate $300,000 from the general fund to cover the first year of administrative and implementation costs.
“We have spent the last two years engaging and working with stakeholders in order to strengthen the bill and reimagine behavioral health care and response in this state,” said Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), the bill’s author. “AB 988 fundamentally changes our approach by putting care and training ahead of confrontation and arrest.” If signed, the bill will “save countless lives of people in mental health crisis,” said Miles Hall Foundation co-founder Taun Hall.
Other California bills clearing the legislature last week included AB-2750 to require a digital equity plan (see 2208250042) and AB-2256 to add two local government officials to the California Middle-Mile Advisory Committee (see 2208230062). The legislature plans to adjourn Wednesday.
The Senate voted 40-0 Thursday to pass a bill to require the California Public Utilities Commission to maintain an interactive map of all last-mile connections from the state’s middle-mile network. The Assembly, which must concur with Senate amendments, sent AB-2752 to two committees to review the changes clarifying what data must be collected. The Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee voted 7-0 to pass along the revised bill to the Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee. Returning amended bills to committees is “not uncommon,” said a spokesperson for sponsor Assemblymember Jim Wood (D). “We expect it to be heard in the privacy committee on Monday.”