This year’s session, of course, has been truncated by the spread of COVID-19, which has driven swift adoption of remote, televised meetings and prompted some lawmakers to hold legislation back in acknowledgement that more pressing matters – like the resulting economic crisis – are at hand. Here’s the status of several noteworthy pieces of technology, data and privacy legislation that had to clear the Assembly Committee on Appropriations or its counterpart, the California state Senate Standing Committee on Appropriations, by Friday:
• There’s understandably been much activity this year around broadband including, last week, a Governor’s Executive Order setting speed goals and priorities. And on Thursday, Assembly Appropriations passed Senate Bill 1130, the so-called “Broadband for All” act by state Sen. Lena Gonzalez, D-Long Beach, though its next appearance isn’t set. SB 1130 makes it easier for local governments and Internet service providers (ISPs) to access money in the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF), to do high-speed broadband projects in unserved and high-poverty areas.
In a tweet, Gonzalez said she was “very happy” the bill cleared Appropriations. “Our team & sponsors have been working hard to ensure there’s a strong plan forward for CA Broadband investment - still more work to do!” she wrote. Senate Appropriations placed another broadband bill, Assembly Bill 570 from Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, in suspense. Among its aims, it would have revised the CASF’s goal to include approving funding for infrastructure projects to bring broadband access to at least 98 percent of state households previously identified.
• State Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 932 – recently broadened from a focus on COVID-19 to all communicable diseases – also passed Assembly Appropriations on Thursday. It heads now to the Assembly’s consent calendar, though it’s not clear when. The San Francisco Democrat’s bill would require electronic communicable-disease reporting tools used by the California Department of Public Health and local health officials to collect and report data relating to the sexual orientation and gender identity of people diagnosed with all communicable diseases. Originally, the bill focused on people diagnosed with COVID-19, to better understand its impact on the LGBTQ community. It’s an urgency statute and will take effect immediately if the Legislature passes it and Newsom signs it.
• Several privacy bills still survive in various stages. SB 980, from state Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, cleared Assembly Appropriations on Thursday, though its next move hasn’t been set. It would create the “Genetic Information Privacy Act” and bar “a direct-to-consumer genetic or illness testing services company from disclosing a person’s genetic information to a third party without obtaining the person’s prior written consent”; and regulate COVID-19 testing companies not covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by not letting them share consumers’ biometric data without explicit consent. AB 904 from Assemblyman Ed Chau, D-Monterey Park, a member of the California Legislative Technology and Innovation Caucus, is headed to the Senate consent calendar, though no date is set. It would expand the definition of a tracking device from an “electronic or mechanical device that permits the tracking of the movement of a person or object” to include “any software that permits the tracking of the movement of a person or object” – with implications for law enforcement.
And AB 713 from Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, D-San Mateo, cleared Senate Appropriations Thursday and is headed for a Senate floor vote, likely Monday or Tuesday. A priority for the lawmaker, it would exempt from the California Consumer Privacy Act information that has been deidentified per federal law, or derived from “medical information, protected health information, individually identifiable health information, or identifiable private information,” also consistent with federal policy. Among its other stipulations, the bill would also except information collected or used in research, or disclosed in research; and information used and disclosed “only for public health activities and purposes.” In a fact sheet, Mullin's office has said it would “harmonize” the CCPA’s definition of deidentified data with the long-used standard in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and avoid possible “widespread disruption to healthcare and biomedical research.”
• AB 2280 on the definition of personal health information and AB 2442 on social media disinformation, both by Chau are headed to the state Senate Judiciary though dates haven’t been set. And his AB 1782 on tech-assisted contact tracing was held in Senate Appropriations. Senate Appropriations also claimed another piece of contact tracing legislation, AB 660 from Assemblymember Marc Levine, D-San Rafael. Placed in suspense Thursday, it would have prohibited “personal information generated through a contact tracing contract with the state from being used for law enforcement or federal immigration purposes.”
