June 5, 2025 – The California Assembly on Wednesday passed a $15-a-month broadband affordability bill by a vote of 52–17.
The California Affordable Home Internet Act, introduced by Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, D-Encinitas, will now head to the state Senate, which is currently dominated by Democrats, who hold 30 of the chamber’s 40 seats.
WASHINGTON, May 1, 2025 – The California State Assembly's communications committee advanced two broadband bills Wednesday, both of which will now be taken up by the chamber’s appropriations committee.
WASHINGTON, April 21, 2025 – The California Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance will hear testimony April 30 on a bill that would require internet service providers to offer a low-cost broadband option to qualifying low-income households.
The bill’s author, Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, D-Encinitas, also serves as chair of the committee that will preside over the hearing.
“A good friend of mine… calls this ‘the single mom with two kids bill,’” said California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, speaking with Telecompetitor about the $15 internet bill she introduced last month.
“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 Boerner.
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2025 – Following in New York’s footsteps, a California lawmaker was one step closer to advancing a sweeping legislative mandate to cap monthly internet bills at $15 for qualifying low-income households.
Feb. 27, 2025 – Now that the Supreme Court has once again declined to hear the broadband industry’s challenge to New York’s $15 Internet law, California Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, D-Encinitas, said Wednesday she was ready to move on legislation to establish a similar broadband affordability mandate in California.
The Encinitas Chamber of Commerce held its fifth Rising Star of the Month event for the 2024-25 school year on Feb. 5. The Chamber again partnered with MiraCosta College’s San Elijo campus which hosts and sponsors the monthly breakfasts honoring exceptional seniors from the local high schools in the San Dieguito Union High School District (SDUHSD).
WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2025 — With the federal Affordable Connectivity Program winding down, states are exploring new approaches to maintain broadband affordability for low-income households, according to panelists at a Broadband Breakfast Live Online event Wednesday.
With New York’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) now in effect, lawmakers in other states are filing similar legislation that requires large Internet Service Providers to offer low-cost plans for financially-strapped households in their respective states.
Assembly member Tasha Boerner (D-Encinitas) introduced a bill that would mandate internet service providers to make affordable plans available to California residents.
The bill, AB 353, is meant to aid the nearly 3 million California households that lost federal support through the Affordable Connectivity Program when the benefit ended last year.