Today's Regulatory Mix:  USDA Announces South Carolina and Nevada Broadband Grants, California Attorney General Urges Congress Not to Preempt CCPA 

USDA Announces South Carolina and Nevada Broadband Grants 

The USDA announced two new broadband investments.  The first is a $9.1 million investment in high-speed broadband infrastructure that will create or improve e-Connectivity for 6,251 homes in rural Kershaw County, South Carolina.  The second is a $2.3 million investment in a high-speed broadband infrastructure project that will create or improve rural e-Connectivity for 273 households, seven farms, seven businesses and a critical community facility in eastern Nevada.

Specifically: 

• TruVista Communications Inc. will use a $9.1 million ReConnect grant to deploy 257 miles of fiber-optic cable in unserved areas of Kershaw County. This investment is expected to cover an 81-square-mile area that includes 6,251 rural households, 24 farms, 15 businesses, four critical community facilities, three educational facilities and a health care center. 
• Beehive Telephone Company Inc. will use a $2.3 million ReConnect grant to construct a fixed wireless system and three Fiber-to-the-Premises (FTTP) systems to connect 273 households, seven businesses, seven farms and a critical community facility in a 229-square-mile area of eastern Elko and White Pine counties. The service area includes the Pilot Valley and Montello communities in Elko County, and the Pleasant Valley community and Burbank exchange in White Pine County. 

In December 2019, Agriculture Secretary Perdue announced USDA will be making available an additional $550 million in ReConnect funding in 2020. USDA will make available up to $200 million for grants, up to $200 million for 50/50 grant/loan combinations, and up to $200 million for low-interest loans. The application window for this round of funding opened Jan. 31, 2020. Applications for all funding products will be accepted in the same application window, which will close on March 16, 2020.  

California Attorney General Urges Congress Not to Preempt CCPA 

Attorney General Xavier Becerra of California sent a letter to Congress urging them not to preempt the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and asking them to provide consumers with new rights under federal law.  The letter was also intended to provide updates on California’s implementation of CCPA.  Attorney General Becerra “emphasized that Congress should provide consumers with greater enforcement power and be a partner to the states in the work of protecting consumer privacy.” 

“I invite Congress to look to the states as sources of innovation and expertise in data privacy,” said Attorney General Becerra.  “One of the key benefits of our federalist system of government is that federal policy can learn from and build on successes in the states.  At a time when personal privacy rights are in jeopardy, Congress should protect consumers by looking to CCPA as a working model for data privacy — it’s the right thing to do for consumers in California and across the country.” 

In the letter, Attorney General Becerra urged Congress to provide consumers with new rights under federal law: 

• The right to access, correct, and delete personal data that has been collected;  
• The right to minimize data collection, processing, and retention;  
• The right to data portability among services; and  
• The right to know what data is collected and processed and for what reasons. 

Attorney General Becerra also stressed that any legislative proposal should extend enforcement powers to both state attorneys general and to consumers through a private right of action. 

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The Regulatory Mix, Inteserra’s blog of telecom related regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of an Inteserra Briefing.