The full text of a compromise anti-robocall bill — the Pallone-Thune TRACED Act — has been released and while it offers a number of consumer protections, it does not go as far as what was proposed in the original House version of the legislation. The House of Representatives is set to vote on the compromise bill as soon as this week, according to a published report. The report says the bill could be passed by the Senate soon after and be sent to the President for his signature or veto before the end of the month.
A copy of the full text of the compromise bill can be accessed by clicking here.
Unlike the original version of Rep. Frank Pallone’s [D-N.J.] bill, the compromise bill does not include a definition of what constitutes an automated telephone dialing service, but does extend the statute of limitations for a potential violation to four years, from two currently.
The bill would also give the Federal Communications Commission the power to assess larger fines on individuals or companies deemed to have violated the law, require implementation of the STIR/SHAKEN call authentication protocols at no additional charge to consumers, and create an inter-agency working group to study whether additional penalties are needed to stop robocalls.
The compromise bill is named after Rep. Pallone, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. John Thune [R-S.D.], chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, who each had authored bills aimed at improving consumer protections and stiffening penalties against robocalls. Rep. Pallone had been pushing the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, which passed the House back in May. Sen. Thune’s bill was the TRACED Act, also passed overwhelmingly
