Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) signed a government facial recognition bill Tuesday. The legislature passed SB-6280 earlier this month while failing to agree to a comprehensive privacy bill that included private sector facial recognition rules (see 2003130070). Sen. Joe Nguyen (D) said his bill will bring “regulatory checks and balances” to a technology that’s being used.
Using a cellphone in a vehicle is a misdemeanor in South Dakota after Gov. Kristi Noem (R) signed HB-1169. The law exempts public safety and calls for emergency purposes, plus hands-free operations. Also Friday, Noem signed HB-1189 to appropriate $5 million to expand rural broadband and declare an emergency. “We may need to come back in June and make drastic changes to both the current budget and next year’s fiscal year budget,” she said.
The federal government should let women use telehealth to access an abortion prescription drug Mifepristone during COVID-19, said Democratic attorneys general from California, 19 other states and the District of Columbia. Monday's letter urged the Department of Health and Human Services and Food and Drug Administration to waive or not enforce its risk evaluation and mitigation strategy designation. “Forcing women to unnecessarily seek in-person reproductive healthcare during this public health crisis is foolish and irresponsible,” said California's Xavier Becerra (D). HHS didn't immediately comment. The federal government is facilitating other types of telehealth (see 2003300048).
The COVID-19 outbreak points to broadband's importance (see 2003270015), said NARUC President Brandon Presley in a Thursday interview. “Once this crisis is behind us, we’ve got to view broadband service as a national security issue, in the sense of economic security,” he said. “I won’t have much toleration for anybody that comes to tell me that internet is a luxury.” Presley will ask NARUC’s new broadband task force to consider “lessons learned.” NARUC teleconferenced Tuesday with the telecom industry including CTIA, NCTA, NTCA, Tracfone and USTelecom; about 150 people joined, a NARUC spokesperson said. Presley told us he wanted to give state commissioners a chance to question industry and learn what it has done so far on data caps and other issues. “There’s still things that can be done,” and “some are doing more than others,” he said. Presley wants more information on whether data cap waivers apply to devices used as Wi-Fi hot spots. “The response to this crisis is going to take substantial collaboration between federal, state, and local governments and the private sector,” said NTCA Senior Vice President-Industry Affairs Mike Romano in a statement. Cable “primarily wanted to share the need for our essential workers to have access to key facilities, and the ability for our workers be out and about as needed to make sure our networks are performing well,” an NCTA spokesperson emailed. Other industry participants didn’t comment. COVID-19 “heightens the importance” of the NARUC broadband task force’s work, Chair Chris Nelson told us. “One thing that we have learned intimately over the last two weeks is the fact that nearly everyone needs access to broadband,” said the South Dakota telecom and utility commissioner. “Folks that might not have expected that they needed broadband in their homes” now see it’s critical for work, education and accessing medical information, he said. The coronavirus experience likely will produce more data on who lacks broadband, said the Republican. Presley is a Democratic Mississippi commissioner.
The FCC acted to shore up its Rural Health Care program, in an order Thursday on docket 02-60. It extends the RHC program application filing window to June 30, eases competitive bidding requirements for healthcare providers with expiring evergreen contracts, and extends procedural deadlines. It's meant to let healthcare providers "focus their attention on their immediate task at hand -- addressing the influx of patients associated with the COVID-19 outbreak and maintaining care for existing patients, thereby helping to control the spread of this serious pandemic, without the diversion of near-term RHC administrative requirements," the order said. "The disruption to health care providers throughout this country as a result of this pandemic is indisputable," Chairman Ajit Pai said, and the FCC is working to address the challenges. The Wireline Bureau is encouraging RHC participants to file forms 462 and 466 funding requests before the new June 30 deadline when possible "so that funding decisions can be issued in a timely manner." The contract exemption is limited to healthcare providers that screen for COVID-19, treat patients or otherwise mitigate its spread. A 14-day deadline for responding to information requests from Universal Service Administrative Co. is extended to 28 days. Among other extensions is the invoice filing deadline. The Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition last week requested some of the changes. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted Wednesday on the topic.
Amazon, Craigslist, eBay, Facebook and Walmart should take rigorous action to prevent COVID-19-related price-gouging (see 2003200066), 33 state attorneys general wrote the companies Wednesday. The AGs, from both parties and including from California, Nebraska, New York and Utah, recommended price trigger tools and complaint portals for consumers. Companies “have an ethical obligation” to do everything in their power to stop the practice in real time, they wrote. The Internet Association didn’t comment.
The COVID-19 pandemic shows the critical need for internet access, said state broadband officials on a Schools, Health and Libraries Broadband Coalition webinar Tuesday. “When we get through this, the silver lining for me will be if we’ve identified where we need broadband, how we’re going to fund that broadband and set a national and state strategic plan to getting there,” said Colorado Broadband Office Director-Federal Broadband Engagement Teresa Ferguson. The coronavirus “has brought home the point many of us have been trying to make for years” that broadband must be a priority, she said: “It is not enough just to fund to the anchor institutions,” but to go “through to the home.” Tennessee “will continue to focus on funding the deployment of infrastructure as well as digital literacy and adoption,” said Department of Economic and Community Development Broadband Director Crystal Ivey. Many states with broadband funding lack dedicated digital literacy support, so Ivey will watch whether the pandemic affects the amount of funding dedicated to increasing adoption, she said. “We’ve known the importance of connectivity for our communities, but as more of us are being asked to stay home from work and school, the issue is being elevated even further.” With so many working at home, broadband’s importance is “really becoming increasingly evident” (see 2002270006), said Pew Broadband Research Initiative Officer Anna Read.
The California Public Utilities Commission suspended renewal requirements for the state LifeLine program for 90 days “to ensure continued access to affordable communications services during the COVID-19 outbreak,” ruled assigned Commissioner Genevieve Shiroma Thursday in docket R.20-02-008. Shiroma asked for comments by April 3 on how long the suspension should continue and if the CPUC should adopt other LifeLine measures... The Vermont Department of Public Service said it's collecting information on telecom and internet availability during the emergency... The Regulatory Commission of Alaska closed doors to visitors Friday because of "confirmed COVID-19 cases in Alaska and in abundance of caution"... NARUC and the National Regulatory Research Institute launched a state commission COVID-19 response tracker.
California should delay enforcing its privacy law for six months due to COVID-19, BakerHostetler lawyers blogged Wednesday. It would “allow our clients time to better focus on business continuity and the safety of consumers and employees in response to the national COVID-19 state of emergency,” they said. The law firm wrote the California attorney general's office Monday seeking delay. California Consumer Privacy Act enforcement starts July 1. The AG office is "committed to enforcing the law upon finalizing the rules or July 1, whichever comes first," emailed spokesperson for AG Xavier Becerra (D). "We're all mindful of the new reality created by COVID-19 and the heightened value of protecting consumers' privacy online that comes with it. We encourage businesses to be particularly mindful of data security in this time of emergency."