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State Legislature Will Consider Slate of Tech Bills in August

Lawmakers will reconvene at the State Capitol in two weeks, leaving them about 30 days to pass bills and send them to the governor. Several pieces of legislation with a technology bent – IT systems, cybersecurity, and policy and law – are still in play.

State lawmakers will reconvene at the State Capitol in two weeks when the calendar turns to August, leaving them about 30 days to pass bills and send them to the governor’s desk. In turn, Jerry Brown will have another month to sign or veto legislation (by Sept. 30).

Several pieces of legislation with a technology bent are still in play, and a number of them focus on cybersecurity. Here’s where things stand with legislation that Techwire continues to track with about two months before the Legislature’s final recess.

Computer Systems

AB 1755, the Open and Transparent Water Data Act from Assemblymember Bill Dodd, D-Napa, would require the Department of Water Resources and other entities to build a statewide water information system and present the data on a public website. Its proponents say such a system would help make the state's water transfer market more efficient. The legislation has been referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

SB 877 on reporting and tracking of violent deaths from Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would require the California Department of Public Health to establish and maintain the California Electronic Violent Death Reporting System (CalEVDRS), collect data on violent deaths, and participate in a similar national database. The legislation cleared the Senate in June and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

AB 2548, on a Statewide Accountability System for schools, from Assemblymember Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, would create a data and reporting system that provides information on school and school district performance displayed through an electronic platform. It would be available to parents and others, who could use the system to compare performance among districts. The current school data systems, CALPADs and DataQuest, don't present data in formats required under the bill. according to the Appropriations Committee. The Assembly approved the bill by a 75-to-1 vote on June 1 and it also has been referred to Assembly Appropriations.

Cybersecurity

AB 1841 from Assemblymember Jacqui Irwin would require California to complete a statewide response plan for cybersecurity threats on critical infrastructure by July 1, 2017. Irwin’s bill would require California to set standards by July 1, 2018, for state agencies and private entities to follow and mitigate cyberthreats. State agencies would be required to submit a cybersecurity strategy for review, and the private sector would be authorized to do so. The legislation cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 28.

AB 2623 by Assemblymember Rich Gordon, D-Menlo Park, would require, beginning in February 2017, state agencies to report their actual and projected information security expenditures to the Department of Technology. Gordon told lawmakers that such information could help the Legislature decide where to allocate state dollars. The bill unanimously passed the Senate Governmental Organization Committee last month.

SB 1444 by State Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, would require a state agency to inventory any personal information that is either stored or transmitted by the agency. It also calls for agencies to establish procedures to facilitate communication between an incident response team, agency officials, and individuals affected by a breach. The bill has cleared the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee.

Policy and Law

SB 1349 from Hertzberg is moving through the Assembly and was placed in the suspense file in June. The bill would exempt the state’s online campaign and lobbying database project, called Cal-Access, from the state’s new information technology process. The so-called Stage Gate process is intended to mitigate the risks associated with large state IT projects after a string of high-profile IT project failures in recent years. Instead, the Secretary of State’s office would be required to submit quarterly reports to the Legislature about the progress of the project. The 2016-17 state budget will put about $1.8 million toward planning for the modernization of Cal-Access.

Another bill from Hertzberg, SB 1137, would spell out criminal penalties for knowingly putting ransomware on a computer's system, network or data. Ransomware is an extortion technique that forces victims to pay or compensate the attacker in order to unlock their computer, device or data. Hertzberg's bill would make a ransomware violation punishable by a two- to four-year jail term and fine of up to $10,000. The bill unanimously cleared the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee in June, and is now with the Appropriations Committee.

The Legislature might consider state-level drone regulations again. SB 868 from State Sen. Hannah Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, failed to move out of the Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee in June, but the bill has been granted reconsideration. SB 868 would make it illegal to fly a drone within 500 feet of critical infrastructure, such as bridges, power plants, hospitals, water delivery systems and oil refineries. Drones wouldn’t be allowed within 1,000 feet of a heliport or five miles of an airport unless given permission. There are other bills that would regulate drones. For instance, AB 2724 from Assemblymember Mike Gatto would, among other requirements, require unmanned aircraft equipped with GPS mapping capabilities to also be equipped with geo-fencing technological capabilities that prohibit the unmanned aircraft from flying within five miles of an airport. Brown last year vetoed legislation that would have banned drones over private property.

Reporting from Samantha Young contributed to this story.

Matt Williams was Managing Editor of Techwire from June 2014 through May 2017.