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Posted on 07/24/2019 2:29:07 PM PDT by jazusamo
The House on Wednesday took a major step toward cracking down on illegal robocalls by passing legislation allowing for tougher penalties against the scammers who generate billions of unwanted calls each year.
Lawmakers passed the measure, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), in a 429-3 vote.
The bill takes aim at illegal spam calls by toughening up the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) ability to take action against illegal robocalling operations and requiring all carriers to implement technology to make sure calls are authentic.
"The rising tide of unlawful, unwanted robocalls started as a nuisance but now threatens the way consumers view and use their telephones," Pallone said on Wednesday before the vote. "These calls are undermining our entire phone system, and that's something we all need to take very, very seriously."
The number of robocallers dialing up U.S. consumers is on the rise. Some estimates say there were more than 48 billion robocalls in 2018, up almost 50 percent from the previous year.
The legislation requires telephone carriers to implement technology that verifies caller identity without charging customers an extra fee, while extending the FCC's authority to impose penalties against the entities that send spam calls. The measure would give the FCC more time to investigate and punish illegal robocallers, require the agency to pare down the list of companies that are allowed to use robocalling services and raise the penalty for illegal robocallers to $10,000 per violation from $1,500.
The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act is similar to the Senate's Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act. The Senate passed its measure 97-1 earlier this year.
A spokesman for the House Energy and Commerce Committee told The Hill there likely will not be a formal conference committee to resolve discrepancies between the two bills. Instead, he said there will be "informal negotiations" during the August recess.
Efforts to pass anti-robocall legislation have stalled for years, but the measures passed in the House and Senate this year increase the odds that Congress could send the White House a bill before 2020.
The GOP-e could have done this back in 2001 but Rove wanted to use the system to get donations.
Hang all robo-call centers!
Frank Pallone actually doing something right?
We can put a man on the moon, but robocalls are difficult?
I am almost positive it exempts political calls.
It will work as well as “gun control” laws.
Who were the three bull-tits who voted no?
Any RINOs?
Just like The Do Not Call List
Scammers use it to verify numbers
Which 3 voted no ?
One of my favorite lines is "So you want me to buy something from you when you can't even use an authentic caller ID? Why should I trust you?"
Good. Every little bit helps.
My phone has kind of gone quite.
For a while between the Medicaid brace calls and the Car warranty calls, it was really getting abusive. I had started reporting them all to the Do Not Call Registry.
But then they busted the Medicare callers as part of a fraud ring.
Not sure what happened to the car warranties.
Robo calls got me cussing in Hindi.
Robo calls got me cussing in Hindi.
Amash
Biggs
Massie
LOL! Only two now that Amash is registered as an Ind.
“Benchode !”
Wrong solution.
Need to make it mandatory for any commercial phone line, VOIP or PRI to have the carrier to provide the caller id and NOT rely on the source phone system. IOW, over write the value received with the contract phone number.
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