Our regulatory work

We speak up on issues that affect the County, county residents, or both by filing public comments on federal and state regulations. In recent years, we’ve done this in the areas of internet access and digital discrimination, immigrants’ rights, and gun violence. Some examples of our regulatory work are listed below. 

Fighting discrimination in internet access

In 2023, we submitted two comments to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) related to the FCC’s preparation of new federal regulations concerning digital discrimination. We urged the FCC to better collaborate with state and local governments on enforcing digital equity requirements and to prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from taking actions that result in communities of color and poor communities having unequal access to broadband internet service.  More information on our comments to the FCC relating to digital discrimination is available here.   

Helping to stop gun violence

In recent years, the County’s law enforcement agencies have seen a proliferation of privately made firearms, commonly called “ghost guns.” Tracing, testing, and linking guns used in multiple crimes is a priority for public safety. Ghost guns get around those efforts because they don’t have serial numbers. Until very recently, a person could easily buy an almost-complete gun, or even a kit with all the parts needed to assemble a gun, and those products would not be regulated.  In 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) put out a proposed regulation that would apply federal firearm rules—like background check and serial number requirements—to ghost guns. Our Office partnered with the District Attorney to write a comment letter supporting the rule. When the ATF adopted the rule, it specifically referenced our comments on how the regulation would help protect public safety. 

Supporting immigrants’ rights

The County took on the Trump Administration’s public charge rule, which aimed to deny green cards or entry into the country to people it deemed likely to become dependent on government benefits. In addition to filing a lawsuit challenging the rule, we also submitted a comment on the Trump Administration’s proposed regulation, explaining how it would undermine community health and well-being and the effective functioning of local governments. After the Biden Administration issued a notice that it planned to issue a new public charge rule, we also submitted comments on that rule.   

Protecting freedom of access to the internet

The County has been a leader in protecting and furthering net neutrality, including by filing litigation against the FCC in 2018. In addition, our Office submitted a comment explaining to the FCC why its proposed repeal of net neutrality rules threatened public safety and urging it to reinstate the net neutrality rules. The FCC announced in October 2020 that, despite the risks to public safety, it would not reconsider its repeal of the net neutrality rules; in February 2021, we petitioned the FCC to reconsider its decision and return to the net neutrality rules in order to protect public safety.