Traced Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BUDD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an issue that has afflicted nearly every American, including me, and it is the influx of annoying and deceptive robocalls. These seemingly endless automated calls disrupt every part of our daily lives, constitute a serious form of harassment, and expose millions of Americans to dangerous financial scams.

A prime example of the insidious nature of these calls occurred last year in New York when scammers pretended to be from the Chinese consulate and demanded money from people with what they considered to be Chinese-sounding last names. As a result, 21 Chinese immigrants lost a total of $2.5 million.

In another instance, scammers attempted to phish personal information by calling people and threatening them with fines unless they signed up for health insurance.

These incidences are financially devastating and are happening to far too many people across our country. If there is one thing Republicans and Democrats should be able to agree on is that Congress can no longer sit back and ignore this problem. Our efforts must be focused on adding teeth to the Federal Government's ability to detect and punish individuals and organizations that abuse automated dialing technology.

With that in mind, I am proud to be a cosponsor of the TRACED Act, introduced by my friend, David Kustoff. This legislation expands the penalties and the timeframes under which the Federal Communications Commission can identify robocallers and pursue civil action. This is entirely bipartisan, and it passed the Senate, last May, 97-1.

Under the TRACED Act, the FCC will be able to impose fines of up to $10,000 for each individual scam call. Currently, telemarketing scammers face a maximum fine of only $1,500. I am confident that increasing the maximum penalty up to $10,000 will deter many scammers by making the cost of getting caught simply too expensive.

To make these harsher penalties the norm and not the exception, the FCC needs to be given more time to find the perpetrators of illegal robocalls. If the TRACED Act becomes law, the period in which the source of a robocall can be investigated and found liable will be tripled from 1 year to 3 years.

This important provision will work in lockstep with the increased fines. The FCC has told Congress that extending the statute of limitations in this way would improve the Commission's enforcement efforts.

During my time in office, I have heard frustration from countless constituents on this issue. Robocalls frequently interrupt our daily lives, ringing our phones during important work-hours, and distracting us from time spent at home with our families.

The TRACED Act is an important bipartisan bill that is supported by attorneys general in all 50 States, along with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.

As scammers adjust the way they perpetrate fraud on the American people, it seems like common sense that our laws should be updated to fight back. No matter which side of the aisle we find ourselves on, we should all be able to agree that it is time for these illegal robocalls to be stopped once and for all.

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