Posted August 21st, 2012 by seanm
UPDATE Wednesday August 22, 2012:
SB 1161 passes California Legislature - State Senate voted to support SB 1161 with Assembly amendments - now up to Governor Brown to veto this harmful bill!
Senate concurrence on SB 1161 passed Wednesday morning August 22, 2012 at 10:32am, by a vote of 28 yes, 7 no, 5 not voting. The seven Noes were Corbett, Evans, Hancock, Leno, Simitian, Wolk, and Yee. Not voting were Berryhill, Harman, Lieu, Pavley and Runner.
Thanks to North Coast Senators Noreen Evans and Mark Leno for important"NO" votes!
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On Monday August 20th, SB 1161 as amended passed the Assembly Floor 63–12–5.
North Coast Assemblymembers Wes Chesbro, and Jared Huffman were among the courageous "NO" votes.
There was a huge amount of corporate funding and pressure to support this ALEC bill (background here: http://bit.ly/RdNE3A)
Sean McLaughlin, executive director of Access Humboldt said, "big thanks to Senator Noreen Evans, Assemblymembers Chesbro and Huffman and all those who stood up for local communities by opposing SB 1161, industry-backed legislation that would cripple local efforts to develop community broadband and media access - SB 1161 would harm consumers and strip the State CPUC and local governments from their constructive oversight roles."
Here is a link to SF Chronicle editorial explaining some basic concerns about SB 1161:
Don't block Internet phone regulation
http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Don-t-block-Internet-phone-regulat...
SF Chronicle editorial concludes: "The Assembly needs to shoot this bill down in order to send a strong message to the telecommunications industry that they can't use a backdoor "status quo" bill to deregulate the basic services of the future."
SB 1161 is expected to be up for a "concurrence" vote in the State Senate in the next few days.
See Update: Senate approved SB 1161 concurrence on Wednesday morning August 22, 2012.
Informed community members are asked to please contact your State Senator NOW -
Let them know that local governments, consumer advocates and public interest groups
are opposing SB 1161 and we are asking our elected officials to Vote NO on SB 1161.
Contact information for Senator Noreen Evans is here:
http://sd02.senate.ca.gov/contact
Thanks!
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