A new national do-not-call (DNC) program kicked off Fri. at a cer...
A new national do-not-call (DNC) program kicked off Fri. at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. “We are announcing new measures by the federal government that will help Americans protect their private time or family time by…
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blocking unwanted phone calls from telemarketers,” President Bush said. He commended FCC Chmn. Powell, FTC Chmn. Timothy Muris and Congress for “hard work on an interesting and important initiative.” Bush said unwanted telemarketing calls were “intrusive,” “annoying, and they're all too common… We're taking practical action to address this problem.” He said the service came “at no expense to the taxpayers. After all, it is fully funded by the telemarketing industry.” Bush said there was a strong consumer response to the creation of the DNC registry: “As of today, 108 persons per second are now registering their phone numbers.” In a separate statement, House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) applauded the FCC and the FTC for their timely launch of the registry, calling it “a welcome relief from those annoying calls that have interrupted us at dinnertime far too many times.” The House in Feb. overwhelmingly passed HR-395, the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act, which was sponsored by Tauzin and Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.), giving the agencies authority to proceed with the national DNC registry this year. The bill signed into law by Bush in March (CD March 12 p6) provides a 5-year authorization for the FTC to raise money from telemarketers to operate, maintain and enforce the registry and requires that both the FCC and the FTC report to Congress annually on the effectiveness of the registry. Free online registration for the national DNC list is available at www.donotcall.gov. At a White House news briefing afterward, FCC Chmn. Powell said he viewed Congress’s attempts to roll back several FCC ownership rules (CD June 20 p1) as “nothing, but a healthy dialog.” He said “I believe very firmly that media rules are the consequence of a legislative action. In 1996, when we established a framework for the review of media rules, we added a strong deregulatory component… If Congress wants to create a different foundation… I don’t interpret it as overturning… I see it as stimulating a dialog.”