The Session Daily reports on the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee policy bill…

The Department of Commerce oversees more than 40 industry areas in Minnesota and licenses more than 250,000 professionals and businesses to ensure their services and products are fair, accessible and comply with state laws.

That breadth was on display Friday as the House Commerce Finance and Policy Committee approved its policy bill.

Much of the bill would beef up consumer protection laws, but other provisions propose changes to insurance laws, financial regulations, and telecommunications regulations.

Notable consumer protection provisions in the bill related to broadband would:

• require a social media platform to allow users to indicate what content they do or do not want and requiring a platform’s algorithm to abide by those preferences.

And other broadband/telecom topics…

Although consumer protections make up much of the committee policy bill, a telecommunications provision in it took center stage in committee discussions.

The bill would allow local governments to negotiate franchise fee agreements for broadband providers’ use of the public right-of-way.

Proponents call the provision the “Equal Access to Broadband Act” and said franchising is a proven way for cities to raise revenue that would ensure equitable and complete delivery of broadband lines.

Republicans opposed the provision, saying broadband service providers would pass along the fees they are charged to consumers, which amounts to a hidden tax levied without voter input.

An amendment unsuccessfully offered by Rep. Harry Niska (R-Ramsey) would have let city residents decide, through a ballot referendum, whether their city should have franchise agreements with broadband service providers.

Related to broadband/telecom, what’s in the bill?

The following are selected bills have been incorporated in part or in whole into the commerce policy bill:

• HF2021 (Kraft) Short Description: Internet service providers serving Minnesota customers certain activities prohibited, and monetary fines authorized.
• HF3679 (Kraft) Short Description: Telecommunications; prohibited practices added, missed repair appointments credit provided, and municipal and local telecommunications service governing provisions modified.
• HF4182 (Freiberg) Short Description: Equal Access to Broadband Act established, and broadband services and broadband infrastructure governing provisions modified.
• HF4400 (Stephenson) Short Description: Prohibiting Social Media Manipulation Act created, social media platforms regulated, and attorney general enforcement provided.
• HF4717 (Hemmingsen-Jaeger) Short Description: Virtual currency terms defined, and additional disclosure requirements added for virtual currency transactions.

Broadband Testifiers (mostly on HF4182):

• Amendments exclude satellite and wireless providers, avoids stacking issues by identifying that the city is responsible for franchise, adds a franchise fee cap, prohibits fees that are inconsistent with cable franchising.
• Cable provider supports cable franchising. There advocacy and programming matters.
• League of MN Cities supports this bill for local responsibility for local rights away. Also supports municipal network-friendly bills.
• SPNN supports franchising to support local programming and democratizing digital resources.
• MCCA (Cable Association) does not support – says the bill will prohibit or slow down broadband access. Broadband providers will need to get local franchising. Also not supportive of municipal network bill.

Comments:

• A23 Amendment:
  The franchising bills adds and 8 percent tax – to fund general revenue. Only 3 percent needs to go to public access programming.
  This is some fees for cities who manage local rights of way.
  This creates a transparency and bloating issues for cities.
  Amendment not adopted.
• A29 Amendment:
  On municipal Network bill – asking that city council (or other local entity) must get super majority vote before city can provide telephone service.
  Amendment not adopted.
• On social media manipulation:
  Are you hearing about how hard it might be to manage this? Ideas seem good but maybe impractical.
  We are looking to refine this issue – but are blazing trails