House Commerce Leaders File Compromise Anti-Robocalls Bill, Say Markup 'Next Week'
House Commerce Committee leaders said they reached agreement on a compromise anti-robocalls bill, as expected (see 1906190071). Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., filed a revised version of the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, which contains language…
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from an earlier version of the measure (HR-946) and other measures the House Communications Subcommittee examined in April (see 1904300212). Pallone and Walden said there will be a likely markup of the bill “next week,” though lobbyists weren't sure what day. HR-946's language would clarify the definition of a robocall and clarify exemptions to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act; create a national database of reassigned phone numbers; and require FCC-FTC cooperation to reduce abusive robocalls by “at least” 50 percent yearly (see 1902040043). The combined bill would direct the FCC to issue rules requiring carriers to offer opt-out robocall blocking and caller ID services to consumers for free, something previously sought in the Repeated Objectionable Bothering of Consumers on Phones (Robocop) Act (HR-2298/S-1212). The plan would mandate the FCC require most providers to implement the caller ID technology “within six months” of commission adoption of an order in its ongoing proceeding on implementation of the secure handling of asserted information using tokens and secure telephone identity revisited technology framework (see 1906060056) and to “take appropriate steps” to ensure calls originating from an exempted provider “are not wrongly blocked because the calls are not able to be authenticated.” The bill includes language from the Support Tools to Obliterate Pesky (Stop) Robocalls Act (HR-2386), which would require the FCC to issue rules for interconnected VoIP providers to require more call record retention obligations and rules to streamline private entities' sharing of robocall and spoofing information with the agency. It increases to three years -- and in some cases four years -- the statute of limitations for illegal spoofing and would increase FCC ability to impose forfeitures against illegal robocallers. Those were previously included in the Robocall Enforcement Enhancement Act (HR-1575). The bill also calls for the FCC to report to Congress on its implementation of reassigned numbers database. Consumer Reports, the National Consumer Law Center, NCTA and USTelecom were among those hailing the compromise bill's introduction.