Zeldin Applauds Bipartisan Passage of Anti-Robocall Bill to Combat Predatory Calls

Statement

Congressman Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1) issued the following statement after House passage of the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act (S. 154) also known as the TRACED Act:

"Unwanted and unlawful robocalls, which were once simply a nuisance, have now hijacked consumers' cell phones and undermined our entire phone system. With Americans receiving tens of billions of robocalls a year, it's no surprise that many Long Islanders have chosen to ignore many incoming callers, causing them to miss important phone calls about their health, their children and more. Consumers should be able to block unwanted and illegal calls and answer their cell phones without fear of being targeted for a scam. This bipartisan and comprehensive legislation continues to build on our efforts to end this continuous onslaught of robocalls."

The TRACED Act:

-Requires carriers to offer call-authentication technology to everyone at no additional charge;

-Requires Opt-in or opt-out robocall blocking be offered at no additional charge to consumers;

-Gives the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) the ability to step up enforcement actions against unlawful robocalls with a longer statute of limitations and increased fines in certain cases;

-Pushes the Department of Justice to bring more criminal prosecutions against criminal robocallers;

-Requires the FCC to work to stop one-ring scams;

-Helps the FCC and responsible carriers traceback and cutoff suspect phone companies that are responsible for sending vast numbers of unlawful robocalls; and

-Protects patients, doctors and hospitals from unlawful robocalls.

An estimated 54 billion illegal robocalls have already been placed nationwide this year alone, including over 330 million in the State of New York in November, according to the YouMail Robocall Index.

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