Lawmakers like Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, a member of the Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance who served as co-chair through Dec. 22, and whose Assembly Bill 2256 added two members to the Advisory Committee on the state’s Middle-Mile Broadband Initiative, are waiting expectantly for Newsom’s proposed budget. (The committee’s areas of focus include broadband and digital infrastructure.)
“Heading into a budget that might look much slimmer than we’ve seen in the past, we certainly don’t believe there will be additional allocations, so we want to make sure that what we have, what is put in even as of today, is moved forward with urgency,” Quirk-Silva told Industry Insider — California Dec. 20. She discussed possible areas of technology-related focus this year with IICA:
- The committee is in the planning stages, Quirk-Silva said, on an informational hearing on broadband, that will focus on “access to the plans that many of the providers have been out promoting” and ensuring price points are affordable when those plans reach residents. Another potential area of focus is ensuring the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) processes applications for federal broadband funding in a timely fashion. (A date for the hearing isn’t yet certain, but it may take place next month.) This, the Assembly member said, was a key part of state Assembly Bill 2749, which Newsom vetoed in September. It would have “expressly” authorized “otherwise eligible wireless broadband service providers to receive funding from the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account and the Federal Funding Account”; and for the purposes of the latter account, required the CPUC to “review completed applications within a review period.”
“And that was really to push the CPUC into approving these applications in a timely manner,” Quirk-Silva said. “We know that there’s been some delays but we want those approvals moved forward because, simply stated, we don’t want to lose federal funding and this is really contingent on getting those applications processed. So, we’ll continue to work on that.” In his veto message, the governor said in part: “Unfortunately, this bill, while intended to bring certainty to timelines within this program, will in effect undermine the last-mile grant program by creating additional delays in its implementation.” - Digital equity and equitable access to education technology remain a concern for the lawmaker, who is a longtime educator in Orange County. Quirk-Silva said she wants to ensure families of students issued electronic devices aren’t penalized and don’t face onerous debts when those devices break or when components like chargers go missing. “These things are changing all the time,” she said, indicating that while the devices may be resilient, they can also become outdated quickly.
- The Assembly member predicted this session may see more bills of wholesale, or large-scale implications for technology. Quirk-Silva indicated lawmakers may take aim at furthering the ongoing de-siloing of IT, highlighting the issue’s deep significance across health care, social welfare, education and public safety systems.
“That would be, I think, really worthy of oversight to find out are we using our funds that we have in the most appropriate way? Is there a way that we can start using the same systems?” Quirk-Silva said, indicating she’s aware this would be in some cases, “a gigantic lift.”
