Senate Approves Caller ID Spoofing Bill
The FCC would be required to draft regulations outlawing caller ID spoofing under a bill (S-704) the Senate Commerce Committee approved by voice vote Wednesday. The bill directs the FCC to write rules within six months of the bill’s enactment; it would impose civil and criminal penalties of $10,000 per violation, with a cap of $1 million. The House passed a similar measure June 12 (HR-251) and it was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee.
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S-704, sponsored by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., had strong bipartisan support. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, ranking Republican, endorsed the bill last week (CD Jun 22 p2) during a committee hearing, saying it would help protect consumers while giving law enforcement the tools it needs to stop deceptive practices. There was no debate on the measure Wednesday as most members have agreed the practice needs to be halted.
A parallel effort in the Senate Judiciary Committee also is under way that would criminalize the activity. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed HR-740 May 24, which would impose prison terms of up to five years for people found in violation of the law. The bill contains an exemption for law enforcement, an exception that police and other penal authorities pushed hard for last year when the same legislation was under consideration.
HR-740 would also allow the court to seize proceeds and property from those found guilty. Items that could be taken include software, computers and other technology used to commit the crime. The bill would apply to calls made from any type of phone, including VoIP. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., a member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced his own caller ID bill (S-1654) June 19 that likely will be considered as an amendment if either the Commerce or Judiciary measures gets taken up on the floor, committee sources said. At a minimum, a conference will be needed to hash out the differences among the measures and come up with a composite bill, a committee official said.
S-704 would require the FCC to report to Congress within six months of enactment whether further legislation is needed to halt fraud. The commission has been working on the matter since 2005, when the Enforcement Bureau began actively investigating cases.
The committee also approved by voice vote a bill (S- 1650) to help minority institutions to qualify for grants to build digital and wireless networks for educational purposes. The grants would be used to build networks to help teachers and students communicate with each other, among other goals. The bill would require grant recipients to match federal funds with donations from public or private entities equal to 25 percent of the amount of the grant, or $500,000, whichever is lesser. The bill also would prohibit institutions that receive grants in excess of $2.5 million from applying for future grants under the program until all eligible institutions that have applied for grants have received them.