California broadband policy will be in the same legislative hands in 2019. Senate and assembly leaders announced committee assignments for the new term, and the chairs of the committees that dealt with major telecoms issues over the past couple of years remain the same.
Miguel Santiago (D – Los Angeles) retained his seat as chair of the assembly communications and conveyances committee. He didn’t make it into the top ranks – no leadership post or a seat on the powerful rules, appropriations or budget committees. But he’ll be able to continue to keep deep pocketed patrons, like AT&T, Comcast and Charter Communications, happy. As he tried to do when he (temporarily) blocked senate bill 822 – the net neutrality law – last year.
Santiago’s principal wingmen are back, too. Evan Low (D – Santa Clara) and Eduardo Garcia (D – Imperial) are once again on the communications and conveyances committee. Besides backing Santiago when he gutted SB 822, Low has (unsuccessfully) carried a copper-killer bill for AT&T and Garcia turned the California Advanced Services Fund into a $300 million piggybank, also for AT&T as well as Frontier Communications and cable companies. Garcia kept his seat on the appropriations committee; Low moves up to chair of the business and professions committee. Jay Olbernolte (R – San Bernardino), who also opposed SB 822, is back as the vice chair of the communications and conveyances committee.
The assembly privacy and consumer protection committee remains in the hands of Ed Chau (D – Los Angeles). He’s already introduced a placeholder bill that is a likely vehicle for amending the new privacy law that he authored last year. It was passed in order to block a tougher initiative that was otherwise headed to the November ballot. How he responds to the mounting pressure to soften it from tech industry interests is a key question for the coming session.
On the senate side, Ben Hueso (D – San Diego) returns as chair of the energy, utilities and communication committee. He, too, was a good friend of AT&T and other mobile carriers in 2017 when he enthusiastically, if not articulately, pushed SB 649. That bill, which was eventually vetoed by governor Brown, would have given them virtual ownership of street light poles and other municipal property they covet. The new vice chair of energy, utilities and communications is John Moorlach (R – Orange).