While August is generally a quiet month for most state legislatures and Congress, it was very active in some states (California, Illinois and New Jersey) with some significant legislation to the electronic security industry reaching final passage and enactment. While August is generally a quiet month for most state legislatures and Congress, it was very active in some states (California, Illinois and New Jersey) with some significant legislation to the electronic security industry reaching final passage and enactment.
In California, AB 1906 and SB 327 were passed by the legislature and if signed by the Governor will require a manufacturer of a connected device (IoT) to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features and designed to protect the device and any information contained in them from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure.
California AB 2138 was also enrolled in August and the enrolled version of this bill amends significant portions of current law regarding the conditions under which a board may deny an application for employment of an occupation or trade under the licensing authority of the board. It extends the statute of limitation to seven (7) years for convictions of disqualifying offenses. It places several other stipulations and requirements for board action.
California also passed and forwarded its version of “net neutrality” to the Governor. SB 822 would make California the fourth state – after Washington, Oregon and Vermont – to adopt a net neutrality law since the FCC rescinded the 2015 open internet order last December. The legality and enforceability of these statutes are questionable and will likely be decided by the courts, assuming Congress does not move to override the FCC order on “Restoring Internet Freedom”.
California also passed further amendments to the recently enacted Consumer Privacy Act of 2018. SB 1121 makes a number of additional changes and members with potential interests in the ramifications of this legislation should review the entire bill very carefully.
The current California “ban the box” law, which limits inquiries into an applicants’ criminal background was amended to provide certain employers with a need to consider the applicant’s complete criminal history. With passage of SB 1412, It is apparent the initial version of the legislation proved to have some negative impact on employers with a need to have more complete background information on certain applicants, due to ambiguities or interpretations of the original statute.
Illinois passed two bills that address school security (SB 2350 and SB 2925), but neither provides funding for security infrastructure improvements.
In New Jersey, the Legislature passed a monumental $1 billion school security infrastructure and workforce development bond bill (SB 2293, the “Securing Our Children’s Future Bond Act”), but it was “conditionally” vetoed by the Governor, who recommended amended language that reduced the amount to $500 million, with $350 million going in part to school security infrastructure. The Governor’s amended language was quickly approved by the Assembly and Senate in New Jersey and should now be set to go before the voters for approval.
New Jersey also enacted a license reciprocity bill, AB 1531, which will provide reciprocity for out-of-state professional and occupational licenses when the license holder comes from a state that has substantially equivalent standards for training, experience and education.
