Kansas Rep. Kyle Hoffman (R) would hesitate to scrap a recurring state 911 audit if the legislature doesn’t pass his forthcoming bill to move the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council to a state agency, he said at a livestreamed House Commerce Committee hearing Thursday. The committee heard testimony on HB-2483, which would eliminate a five-year audit by the Kansas Legislative Division of Post Audit that checks if public safety answering points are appropriately using 911 funding, whether they have enough money, and the status of 911 service implementation (see 2401030019). An audit could still be requested, but the bill would stop automatically requiring audits that are “somewhat boring for the most part,” said Chair Sean Tarwater (R). Committee member Hoffman responded that auditing is useful to the Kansas 911 Coordinating Council where he serves. However, Hoffman plans to propose a bill next week, probably with a Democratic co-sponsor, "that will be moving the 911 Coordinating Council to a fee-funded state agency, which would then negate the reasoning for the 5-year audit,” he said. "I would be a little bit hesitant to totally get rid of the audit if we don't move it to a state agency because that is one of the only real lookbacks that we have as a legislature to really look at what they're doing.” Kansas Legislative Post Auditor Chris Clarke testified that her division usually receives more requests for audits than it has capacity to perform.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed bills this week on consumer data privacy protections (S-332) and telephone line abandonment rules (A-1100). The legislature passed the bills earlier this month (see 2401080073). “I am heartened that consumers will now be given a say in the distribution of their personal information,” Murphy wrote in a signing statement. New Jersey is the 14th state with a comprehensive privacy law.

A pair of South Carolina age-verification bills will advance to the full House Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to meet Tuesday. During a livestreamed meeting Thursday, the Constitutional Laws Subcommittee unanimously greenlit H-4700, which would require parental consent for minors younger than 18 to access social media, and H-3424, meant to keep kids off pornographic websites. The committee approved amendments to both bills by voice vote. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Weston Newton (R) revised his social media bill to be more like Louisiana’s similar law, he said. It was originally akin to a law in Utah, which faces an industry lawsuit (see 2312180054). The amended H-4700 requires social websites make commercially reasonable efforts to verify the age of South Carolina account holders and restrict anyone younger than 18 from having accounts unless they get parental consent. While tasking the state attorney general with enforcement, the amended bill continues to include a private right of action like Utah's does, said Newton. And the bill now requires online safety education for grades six through 12. Legislators should provide more support for parents and try to curb social media companies’ incentives to exploit children, said Casey Mock, Center for Humane Technology chief policy and public affairs officer. Social media companies made $11 billion in revenue from U.S. kids 18 and younger in 2022, including $2 billion from those younger than 12, said Mock, citing a Jan. 2 Harvard University study. Lawmakers should require “safety by default,” a design approach that is light touch, technology agnostic and content neutral, said Mock. Don’t be scared by tech industry "pressure tactics,” said Mock, referring to a NetChoice official mentioning litigation against other states at the South Carolina panel’s meeting last week (see 2401110044). An amendment to H-3424 tightens the definition of a pornographic website and gives sites three ways to verify age: a digitized ID card, an independent third-party verification service or “any commercially reasonable method that can verify age,” said sponsor Rep. Travis Moore (R): It also removes language directing the AG to develop rules. Wednesday in Utah, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-0 to approve a bill (SB-89) delaying seven months to Oct. 1 the effective date of the state’s litigated social media law.

State agencies urged the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to hold Lumen’s CenturyLink accountable for alleged service quality failures. But Lumen said the PUC should halt further action in the nearly 4-year-old probe (see 2301050068). The PUC received briefs Wednesday in docket C-20-432. “Despite CenturyLink’s obligations to deliver adequate service, the company’s unwillingness to sufficiently maintain its aging network means that an increasing number of customers are forced to endure lengthy and repeated outages, or buzzing, ringing, or static that renders their landline service useless,” the Minnesota Commerce Department said. “These customers cannot be treated as mere datapoints to be averaged or annualized away.” Rather than proactively rehabilitate its network, CenturyLink fixes individual problems; even then, the company is slow, the department said. The PUC should order Lumen to "rehabilitate deficient plant and equipment serving the most harmed customers and prevent future backlogs through better preventative maintenance of its aging legacy copper network.” Similarly, the Minnesota attorney general office’s Residential Utility Division urged PUC action. For many years, CenturyLink customers have complained about "long wait times, excessive outages, and decaying infrastructure that erodes their service quality and pollutes the local landscape,” the division said. “Technicians too report equipment in disrepair and orders from management to avoid costly replacements even when they are needed; they note CenturyLink has hollowed out the local workforce needed to repair and maintain copper wire landline telephone systems.” The telco “simply will not help them, having unofficially abandoned wireline customers to focus on customers and communities that offer the company a greater potential for profit,” it said. Lumen argued there is nothing for the PUC to do. Nearly four years since the investigation began, "the record is clear -- CenturyLink provides safe, reasonable and adequate voice service to its Minnesota customers, in compliance with Minnesota law."

The West Virginia Public Service Commission ordered its administrative law judges division to reach a decision by July 2 on the state E-911 Council’s complaint against Frontier Communications. Participants in docket 23-0921-T-C may seek an extension, said Tuesday’s PSC order. The council complained that 10 emergency call centers couldn’t receive 911 calls for nearly 10 hours during a three-day period in November (see 2312070015).

Wisconsin legislators advanced bills prohibiting caller ID spoofing and supporting next-generation 911 (NG-911). The Assembly Consumer Protection Committee voted unanimously to clear anti-spoofing bill AB-559 on Wednesday, one day after the Senate passed the similar SB-531. AB-559 goes next to the Assembly floor. The Assembly Finance Committee voted 12-1 Tuesday to advance AB-356, which would provide grants to support migration to NG-911 (see 2312200055). The bill is on Thursday’s Assembly floor calendar. The similar SB-371 is on the Senate’s calendar the same day.

Crown Castle may install more than 22 miles of fiber in Connecticut, the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) decided Wednesday. By a 3-0 vote, PURA granted the infrastructure company’s Nov. 22 and Dec. 18 applications in docket 19-02-28. PURA said Crown plans to attach fiber equipment to poles owned by Frontier Communications and either Eversource Energy or United Illuminating.

Nevada, New Jersey and New York diverted about $205.4 million, or 5.3% of all 911 fee revenue, for unrelated purposes in 2022, an FCC report to Congress posted Tuesday found. The commission’s previous annual report found the same three states diverting about $198.5 million in 2021. The states used some of the revenue for public safety programs unrelated to 911; New York and New Jersey also used a portion for purposes unrelated to 911, the FCC said. Under the NET 911 Act, states must use 911 fee revenue for 911-related activities. The agency said 49 states, the District of Columbia and four territories responded to last year’s data request. Together they collected more than $3.5 billion in 2022 for 911. Idaho and the Northern Mariana Islands didn't report. New Jersey diverted 78.1% of $127.1 million collected, while fellow repeat offender New York diverted 41.7% of $254.4 million collected, said the report: It's unknown how much Nevada diverted from a $2.9 million pot. Nevada disclosed that at least two local jurisdictions diverted funding in 2022 for police body and vehicular cameras, the report said. “New Jersey and New York did not self-identify ... as diverting funds, but, consistent with previous reports, the Bureau has determined based on review of the information provided that these states diverted funds for non-911 related purposes within the meaning of the NET 911 Act.” In addition, the FCC said 44 states, D.C., Guam and Puerto Rico reported $512 million in total next-generation 911 spending in 2022. It said 37 states and jurisdictions reported having operating emergency services IP networks (ESInets). D.C., Puerto Rico and 47 states reported having text-to-911 by the end of 2022. Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands expected to provide that capability in 2023, the report said. National Emergency Number Association CEO Brian Fontes said it's unfortunate and unacceptable that some states still see 911 revenue as a way to fund other programs. "Funds that the public pays specifically for 9-1-1 purposes should be used to ensure that 9-1-1 callers receive an effective emergency response." NENA urges states that divert funds to end the practice. Instead, they should use the money for maintaining 911 service levels and upgrading to NG-911, he said.

State Commissioner Tyler Huebner will leave the Wisconsin Public Service Commission after the GOP-majority state Senate voted to reject his nomination, the PSC said Tuesday. In Wisconsin, a governor’s nominee can serve on the commission before receiving Senate confirmation. Gov. Tony Evers (D) appointed Huebner in March 2020 and reappointed him for a six-year term that began March 2021. “The decision by Senate Republicans to fire him today defies justification and logic,” Evers said Tuesday. Evers appointed Kristy Nieto, the PSC’s energy division administrator, to replace Huebner starting Feb. 2 for a term that expires March 1, 2025, the governor’s office said. In a statement, Huebner said, “I am moving forward, and I plan to build on my work at the Commission and throughout my career to tackle some of the big challenges of our times in a different capacity.” PSC Chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq also leaves the commission this month (see 2401110059).

Municipal police dispatchers should get a slice of county 911 fee revenue in Washington state if they receive emergency calls transferred from the county, House Appropriations Committee Chair Timm Ormsby (D) said at a Local Government Committee hearing livestreamed Tuesday. Ormsby sponsored HB-2258, which would require counties collecting the tax to transfer some of the revenue to local governments operating municipal 911 systems. Currently, counties may impose a 911 excise tax of up to 70 cents monthly per line on landlines, wireless and VoIP; states may additionally impose a 911 tax of up to 25 cents. But in some areas, like Spokane, the county emergency communications center transfers calls requiring police to the city, which doesn’t receive any 911 fee revenue, said Ormsby. “This is about making sure that folks in our community that pay that excise tax get services for the larger portion of the 911 calls that are police, not fire related.” The bill wouldn’t raise the 911 tax, he said in response to a question by Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen (R).