A bill has been introduced in both the House of Representatives and Senate that seeks to amend the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by expanding the Do Not Call list and updates the definition of an automated telephone dialing system.
The legislation, titled the “Protecting American Consumers from Robocalls Act,” is being positioned by its sponsors as a response to the continued rise in robocalls, scam activity, and advances in technologies like VoIP and AI-generated voice tools. Lawmakers point to more than $1.1 billion in consumer losses tied to phone scams in 2025 as justification for strengthening the TCPA’s enforcement mechanisms.
At a high level, the bill proposes several notable changes that could have meaningful implications for collection operations and other outbound calling environments.
First, the bill would expand the scope of the Do Not Call Registry beyond residential phone lines to include all telephone subscribers. That change would explicitly bring business lines and small businesses into the same framework that has historically applied to residential consumers.
Second, the legislation would lower the threshold for bringing a private right of action. Under current TCPA rules tied to Do Not Call violations, liability generally requires more than one call within a 12 month period. The proposed language would allow a claim to be brought after a single call.
Third, the bill would modify the definition of an automated telephone dialing system. The revised definition would include systems that dial numbers from a stored list and do so successively without human intervention. This change would move beyond the current focus on random or sequential number generation and could capture a broader range of dialing technologies commonly used in legitimate business communications.
The bill also contemplates ensuring a minimum statutory damage amount of $500 per violation tied to Do Not Call infractions, reinforcing the financial exposure tied to TCPA claims.
Supporters of the legislation argue that these updates are necessary to address evolving scam tactics, including neighbor spoofing and AI-driven impersonation schemes. They also emphasize that small businesses are frequent targets of robocalls and should have clearer protections and enforcement options.
