A bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives that seeks to close a loophole allowing debt collectors to use automated dialers when seeking to collect on payments owed to the federal government.
The bill, called the Help Americans Never Get Unwanted Phone Calls or HANGUP Act, was introduced by Rep. Anna Eshoo [D-Calif.] on Friday, the same day the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on robocalls.
If enacted, the bill would remove an exemption for debt collectors seeking to collect debts owed to the federal government, such as student loans and mortgages. The exemption was provided to those collection agencies in 2015 through language in the Budget Act.
“No one should be subjected to harassing or unwanted robocalls, whether they come from a government contractor or anywhere else,” Eshoo said. “Congress took action to crack down on these unwanted calls through the 1991 TCPA, but the provision in the Budget Act of 2015 rolled back important consumer protections in the 27 year old law. The HANGUP Act restores these critical protections for consumers by establishing a statutory roadblock to unwanted robocalls and texts from government contractors.”
This is not the first time that a member of Congress has attempted to close the loophole. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate in 2015 and 2017 but never made any progress.
