In remarks that could reflect the looming legislative deadline, five electeds from both houses skirted most key bills still alive in committee, opting instead to weigh in on California’s more immediate technology-related concerns. (Legislators have until Aug. 31 to pass bills or forever hold their peace — until next session.) Among the takeaways:
• Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham, R-San Luis Obispo, a regular legislator on issues like data and privacy, checked in Monday on the current power woes and how they connect to tech. “Rolling blackouts will be a feature of our energy grid for years without a diversification of renewable energy production. We need to keep our nuclear and hydroelectric resources, and invest in modern storage technology if we're going to avert these crises moving forward,” Cunningham wrote on Twitter, in comments he also put up on Facebook.
• Assemblymember Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, highlighted residents’ tech needs as the school year gets underway. “Thank you @geoffreyfowler for highlighting how laptops and other technology will be essential this year for some schools,” Rivas wrote on Sunday on Twitter, name-checking The Washington Post tech columnist. In a news release last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office estimated more than 90 percent of students will start the school year with distance learning. The state, the office said, has partnered with companies including Apple and T-Mobile to “set aside hundreds of thousands of discounted devices to prioritize for California schools.” In an executive order on Friday, Newsom directed the California Department of Technology and other state agencies to “regularly convene private-sector companies” to gauge the demand for broadband; and sets a minimum goal of 100 megabits per second download speed for state agencies under his authority.
• Assemblymember Devon Mathis, R-Visalia, retweeted state @SenBrianJones on Friday, on the recently discovered issues with COVID-19 case data. “CA's backlog of almost 300,000 COVID cases means the data we’ve been hearing for weeks is inaccurate,” Jones wrote in part on Aug. 13. At a presser Friday, Newsom said the backlog of test results caused by an error in a state health system has nearly been resolved; of the 7,900 new cases added that day, Newsom said more than half came from the backlog — indicating progress in working through them. And in a fast-track, three-phase procurement released Aug. 12 and already moving through proofs of concept, state officials are seeking new solutions to do a better job of handling that data.
• Assemblymember Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, gave a nod to fellow lawmaker Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, whose Senate Bill 932 would require electronic communicable-disease reporting tools used by the California Department of Public Health and local health officials be able to collect and report data relating to the sexual orientation and gender identity of people diagnosed with all communicable diseases. “LGBTQ data during #COVID19 is important so we know the true impact the virus is having on communities & can better direct resources. CA only recently began collecting this info in late July, missing 4 months of info,” Ting wrote on Friday in a Twitter comment he also posted on Facebook. Before being broadened, SB 932 originally focused on data from LGBTQ residents. It’s currently in the Assembly Committee on Appropriations.
• State Sen. John Moorlach, R-Santa Ana, weighed in on tech woes at the California Employment Development Department. Attaching a copy of a letter that lawmakers sent the governor, he tweeted on Aug. 11: “Gov. Newsom needs to make this EDD fiasco a top priority. Other states, like Rhode Island, have worked w/ software innovators to get their checks out in a timely manner. With Silicon Valley, CA should have done the same, but it has failed to meet the moment.” On July 29, of course, Newsom convened an EDD strike team tasked with assessing tech improvements needed at EDD to process claims in a timely fashion and be more responsive to residents.
