July House Energy and Commerce Committee markup includes amendments to clarify there is no cost to callers seeking redress on erroneously blocked calls.
7/18/2019 16:00
An amended version of the bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (H.R. 3375) is headed to the U.S. House of Representatives for review after a 48-0 voice vote from the Energy and Commerce Committee. It includes an important amendment from U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., chairman of the committee, and Ranking Member U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to ensure there is no additional charge to callers for resolving complaints related to erroneously blocked calls.
The bipartisan legislation, originally introduced by Pallone and Walden, also includes a requirement for the Federal Communications Commission to provide clarity on its definition of an automatic telephone dialing system within six months of the legislation’s effective date if it is approved by Congress and signed into law, ACA previously reported.
Overall, the amendment from Pallone and Walden makes technical changes to the bill in addition to ensuring transparency and redress for erroneously blocked calls.
It also addresses clarity on the definition of a called party, which will be in effect when the FCC’s reassigned numbers database is fully operational, “allowing a person to check the database to determine the last date of disconnection associated with a phone number.”
The term “called party” is defined in the legislation as “the current subscriber or customary user of the telephone number to which the call is made, determined at the time when the call is made.”
Additional amendments passed during the markup also include:
- Requiring the FCC to establish a Hospital Robocall Working Group to, among other things, issue best practices to help voice service providers combat unlawful robocalls made to hospitals and to help hospitals protect themselves from robocalls. The amendment from U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, also requires the FCC to initiate a proceeding to determine whether the voluntary adoption of the practices can be facilitated.
- Allowing the FCC to assess an additional $10,000 penalty for a robocall violation if the offender acted with intent to cause the violation. U.S. Reps. Bill Flores, R-Texas, and Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., offered this amendment.
The legislation also addresses several issues with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, including reassigned numbers, and includes similar language to the FCC Declaratory Ruling concerning a default opt-out for call blocking services.
The revised bipartisan legislation, with additional co-sponsors U.S. Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, Republican leader of the House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, and Mike Doyle, R-Pa., chairman of the subcommittee, was introduced following an April legislative hearing on a proposal to stop robocall practices.
ACA International continues to urge Congress to narrow the focus of the legislation on bad actors.