House Commerce Advances Stopping Bad Robocalls Act
House Commerce Committee leaders are eyeing a potential House vote as soon as next week on the compromise Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375) after successfully advancing the measure out of the committee Wednesday. House Commerce voted 48-0 for the bill. Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., meanwhile, told us he's now more optimistic about the chances Capitol Hill negotiators will be able to reach a conference agreement to marry HR-3375 and his Senate-passed Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (S-151).
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House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said after the committee advanced HR-3375 that he expects a floor vote to happen “soon” and plans to file the committee's report on the measure Friday. HR-3375 would direct the FCC to issue rules requiring carriers to offer opt-out robocall blocking and caller ID services to consumers for free; increases to three years -- and in some cases, four -- the statute of limitations for illegal spoofing; and would increase FCC ability to impose fines (see 1906200061).
“It would be nice to get a floor vote on” HR-3375 before Congress leaves for the five-week August recess, House Communications Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle, D-Pa., said in an interview: “It's a consensus bill and it's one that will fly through” the chamber. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., predicted during the House Commerce markup that HR-3375 will probably “emerge as the most popular bill that we pass” during this Congress given the widespread public ire for robocalls. The measure had 152 co-sponsors Tuesday.
“I haven't seen the latest iteration of” HR-3375, but it appears to be “moving in our direction, which will make any kind of conference or negotiation” to reach a consensus between that bill and S-151 “more plausible,” Thune told us. “Hopefully, whatever they send over is something we can reconcile” with the Senate-passed measure. S-151 has similarities with HR-3375, but Thune has for months raised concerns that House passage of anything that even slightly deviates from the Traced Act text would complicate the process of enacting an anti-robocall law this year (see 1904300212).
House Commerce cleared three amendments to HR-3375 on voice votes. They include a manager's amendment from Pallone and committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., to increase the transparency of a proposed FCC reassigned number database and prohibit providers' robocall blocking services from imposing additional charges for callers to “resolve complaints related to erroneously blocked calls.”
Language from Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, would direct the FCC to establish a “Hospital Robocall Protection Group” advisory committee to issue a set of best practices for carriers to combat illegal robocalls made to hospitals and for hospitals to better protect themselves against such incidents. The proposal also says the group should recommend ways for federal and state governments to combat robocalls to hospitals. An amendment from Reps. Bill Flores, R-Texas, and Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., would provide an additional penalty of up to $10,000 for robocallers found to have violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act “with the intent to cause such violation.”
House Commerce touted support from 15 telecom and consumer groups after the committee advanced HR-3375, including AARP, Charter Communications, CTIA, NCTA, Public Knowledge, USTelecom and Verizon. But several financial and credit sector stakeholders remain opposed to the measure as currently written. “Any limitation placed on a financial [institution’s] ability to keep a customer informed on how to properly manage their account when anything negative or positive were to happen could have significant impact on their financial wellbeing,” the Consumer Bankers Association wrote House Commerce ahead of the markup.
Senate Aging Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., led filing Wednesday of the Anti-Spoofing Penalties Modernization Act, before a committee hearing on protecting senior citizens against robocall fraud. The measure would double the minimum fine per instance of illegal spoofing to $20,000 and up the maximum penalty to $2 million from the current $1 million. The bill would also extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting spoofing violations to three years from the current two years. Collins said during the hearing that her bill “will complement” language in S-151. Collins' bill drew three co-sponsors -- Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Martha McSally, R-Ariz.; and Gary Peters, D-Mich.