California

California Assembly Bill 353, which will require every provider in the state to offer an affordable internet option for no more than $15 per month, passed the Assembly floor on June 4 by a 52-17 margin. “In light of the federal internet subsidy program going away, we have to do something for California,” said Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who introduced the legislation.

Plain old telephone service has been dying a slow death in the US since the turn of the century. For much of the 20^th century, almost every American household used only POTS to make a phone call. Now, only 1.3 percent of households rely on POTS to do so. What happened?

Over 33,000 households in Oakland are estimated not to have residential broadband internet service. Deep, active community engagement starting during the pandemic shed light on the root causes of this digital divide: Internet affordability, access, and performance are the main barriers. Meanwhile, a duopolistic marketplace has resulted in a lack of investment in broadband infrastructure, leaving many Oaklanders paying more for less while the problems persist.

California Assembly Bill 353—which promises affordable internet for those who qualify for it—recently advanced when it passed the state’s Assembly Communications and Conveyance Committee by a vote of 7 to 2. The bill faced hefty opposition from the telecommunications, cable, and broadband industry. AB 353 would require internet service providers operating in California to offer affordable home internet to eligible residents of the state, according to a press statement made by California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, who introduced the bill to the California Assembly earlier in 2025.

On April 30, a committee in the California Assembly will hold a hearing on proposed legislation that would dictate rates for interstate broadband information services. Intended to promote affordability, the California bill would unwisely subject broadband service providers to price controls of $15 per month. But state-level rate regulation takes away broadband providers’ ability to set their prices in the free market, directly undermining their returns on investment in their network property.

“A good friend of mine… calls this ‘the single mom with two kids bill,’” said California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, about the $15 internet bill she introduced in March 2025. “I always think about the single mom working two jobs — and her kids still have to get online and upload their homework to Google Classroom,” said Rep Boerner. Rep Boerner, whose district extends along the coastline of southern California between San Diego and Carlsbad, serves as chair of the state’s Committee on Communications and Conveyance.

On January 7, 2025, fires erupted across the city of Los Angeles, California. The Eaton Fire burned through the eastern side of the city, burning through the Altadena, Pasadena and Sierra Madre communities and causing 18 deaths, destroying 9,400 structures, and scorching 14,000 acres of land. In the west, the Palisades Fire led to twelve deaths, destroyed over 6,000 structures, and covered over 23,000 acres in the Pacific Palisades, Topanga and Malibu. The Hurst, Kenneth and Hughes fires also burned through parts of northwestern and central LA.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration after millions of dollars in grants to state libraries were terminated abruptly through the Trump administration’s efforts to illegally shutter the agency that administers them.

The state of California is opening its Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program application window for prequalification and application submissions, and ending on October 2 for submission of the final proposal to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which administers the program federally. The BEAD Program has allocated $1.86 billion to California for bringing high-speed internet to unserved and underserved residents. Applicants must meet a 25 percent match requirement on proposals.