California to trade net neutrality for $1.4 billion from Trump

California utility regulators this week cleared the way for the state to accept more than $1.4 billion in federal funding to build out broadband in underserved areas.

But there’s a catch: Under terms added by the Trump administration, taking the money means rolling back Californians’ right to what’s known as net neutrality: equally fast connections to every website.

Now open internet access advocates are calling on the governor to keep the state from signing on to the federal broadband grant until it considers ways to fight those terms, potentially including a lawsuit.

“At any point the governor can say, ‘Hey, you guys that are acting on my delegation of authority, don’t sign it until I have a chance to look at it further,’” said Harold Feld, a lawyer and vice president at Public Knowledge, which advocates on digital issues.

The money would go toward more than 80 equitable internet access projects led by companies including Comcast, Pacific Bell, SpaceX, and Verizon and set to serve more than 270,000 people.

The commission on Thursday voted to give its staff the authority to “take any ministerial action necessary to implement and effectuate” California’s broadband equity plan, according to the resolution. But open internet advocates argue that Gov. Gavin Newsom, who in 2022 ordered the commission to administer the program and receive the funding, has the authority to intervene before that happens.

They want Newsom to protect a 2018 law that gives California the strongest net neutrality rules in the nation. Without those safeguards, they say, internet providers could throttle internet speed to first responders in emergencies, threatening public safety. They also believe that stipulations attached to the broadband funding could endanger programs that fund internet access for low-income Californians.

The federal funds come through a 2021 program known as Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment set up by Congress to connect more Americans with high-speed internet, mirroring past initiatives to provide universal telephone and electricity access.

The utilities commission once called the program a “once in a century” opportunity.

That was before the Trump administration, amid deregulatory pressure from the broadband industry, changed the terms to require states to stop enforcing, in at least some instances, net neutrality or rate regulation laws.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration in July approved California’s broadband funding proposal. An August 31 notice of award gives the state 30 days to accept the money and terms. Spokespeople for Newsom and the state attorney general’s office did not respond to questions about whether they plan to challenge the broadband program’s terms. The commission requested an extension of the acceptance deadline but it’s unclear if the federal agency granted it.

California is one of the last states to decide whether to take the money.

The California Alliance for Digital Equity and 27 other organizations sent Newsom, the state attorney general, and president of the utilities commission a letter earlier this week, saying that accepting the money “would set a dangerous precedent for the federal government to use federal funding as a cudgel that forces states in line with its agenda.”

Barbara van Schewick, a Stanford Law School professor who helped pass the 2018 state net neutrality law, said it’s essential that the state challenge the federal program’s conditions in court before accepting the funding. She said the federal government’s terms would endanger a 2019 law created after an incident in which firefighters had to revert to using their personal devices while fighting a wildfire after Verizon reduced connection speeds. The federal program can also take back grant money to enforce its conditions.

“You don’t want to fight it out in court whether Verizon has a right to throttle firefighters. When fires are raging, you want Verizon to know they can’t do that, not sort that out a year from now,” she said.

Van Schewick and other advocates say that, beyond giving up net neutrality and risking public safety, accepting the federal funds also would stop low-cost internet programs that could save Californians more than $5 billion in the years ahead.

“The idea that you would give all that up for $1.4 billion is mind boggling,” van Schewick said.