Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg wants to create a competitive bidding process among publishers, faculty members and others - and set up a state-run open source digital library to house the E-books.
Steinberg: "This isn't government producing textbooks. In fact, it's just the opposite. The bill suggests that we take what is now a monopoly and we turn it into a competitive process."
Lobbyist Steve Rhoads represents the American Publishers Association, which is fighting the bills. He says publishers don't oppose digital textbooks - they just oppose the government funding them.
Rhoads: "And the worry is that the government is going to dictate to the faculty that they have to use these materials."
After Wednesday's vote, the bills now move to another Senate committee.
