A pair of bills have been introduced in Congress that seeks to strengthen private efforts to identify the origin of robocalls by offering immunity to anyone who shares information about unlawful activity.
In the House of Representatives, H.R. 7598 was introduced by Rep. Bob Latta [R-Ohio], the ranking member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee. In the Senate, S. 3335 was introduced by Sen. John Thune [R-S.D.], the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation’s Subcommittee on Communications, Media, and Broadband.
The bills are yet another effort at the federal level to combat the proliferation of illegal robocalls. These bills offer protection to anyone sharing information about unlawful robocalls. Under the TRACED Act, the Federal Communications Commission was charged with designating an entity that would be responsible for tracing back the origins of suspected illegal robocalls. USTelecom was chosen as the consortium to oversee the traceback efforts.
“Traceback efforts have played a central and ever-growing role in the battle against illegal robocalls,” said Brandon Heiner, USTelecom’s Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, in a statement. “This important legislation is critical to the millions of victims of illegal robocalls because it will help empower the FCC’s registered consortium to traceback illegal calls and more effectively share actionable information to get these illegal calls off of the networks.”
The bills would also allow the consortium or the FCC to publish a list of voice service providers that “refuse to participate in private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls.”
