Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, today the Senate is taking the final step to send much-needed legislation to protect consumers from robocalls to the President's desk. I think we had hoped that this would be able to be passed with a couple of other bills coming out of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. I think the chairman of the committee, Senator Wicker, will address those later: the data mapping bill and the secure communications bill that deals with ensuring that we protect our technology from harmful elements--Huawei and those sorts of things. I would hope that we could get those cleared at some point, too.
Today, we want to proceed with the robocall bill.
I will just start by saying that illegal robocalls have flooded Americans' phones to the point where many folks don't want to answer their phones at all. In fact, a recent report found that only 47 percent of calls Americans receive are actually answered. This means consumers aren't answering legitimate calls that could be alerting you of fraud on your credit card, notifying you that your flight has been canceled, or reminding you of an upcoming medical appointment--all calls that are important to consumers.
It is clear that no one is immune to these annoying and potentially dangerous calls. Scammers use these calls to successfully prey on vulnerable populations, especially elderly Americans, and they target the kind of personal information that can be used to steal your money or your identity. When scammers are successful, the consequences for their victims can be devastating.
While there are laws and fines in place right now to prevent scam artists for preying on Americans through the telephone, these measures have been insufficient. When I served as chairman of the Commerce Committee, I subpoenaed the mass robocaller Adrian Abramovich to testify about his operation. His testimony made it clear that robocall scammers simply build the current fines into the cost of doing business.
On top of this, the Federal Communications Commission's enforcement efforts are hampered by a tight time window for pursuing violators. That is why, earlier this year, I introduced the legislation before us today, the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or the TRACED Act, with my fellow Commerce Committee member, Senator Markey. The TRACED Act provides tools to discourage illegal robocalls, protect consumers, and crack down on offenders. It expands the window in which the FCC can pursue intentional scammers and levy fines from 1 year to 4 years.
The legislation also requires telephone service providers to adopt call verification technologies that would help prevent illegal robocalls from reaching consumers in the first place. The TRACED Act also recognizes the importance of legitimate calls and ensures important calls like emergency public safety calls are not wrongly blocked.
Importantly, it convenes a working group with representatives from the Department of Justice, the FCC, the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, State attorneys general, and others to identify ways to criminally prosecute the illegal robocalling. TRACED also addresses the issue of so-called one-ring scams, where international scammers try to get individuals to return their calls so they can charge them exorbitant fees.
It directs the Federal Communications Commission to convene a working group to address the problem of illegal robocalls being made to hospitals.
Mr. President, I am very pleased that the TRACED Act received bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. I am especially grateful to Senator Markey for partnering with me on this legislation, and I appreciate Chairman Wicker and Ranking Member Cantwell for quickly advancing this legislation through the Commerce Committee this year.
I also appreciate the work of our House colleagues, Representatives Pallone, Walden, Doyle, and Latta, for their work on advancing the TRACED Act through the House. I am also very pleased this bill has attracted tremendous support from State governments and industry and consumer groups.
While the TRACED Act won't prevent all illegal robocalling, it is a big step in the right direction. As The Washington Post editorial board recently stated, the TRACED ``is what good, old-fashioned legislating looks like.'' I could not agree more. No process is perfect, but today, I am excited that the Senate will be sending the TRACED Act to the President's desk.
Before I close, Mr. President, I would like to quickly thank several staff members whose efforts helped get us here today. In my office, I appreciate the work of Alex Sachtjen, Lauren Greenwood, Jessica McBride, and Nick Rossi. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dan Ball, Olivia Trusty, John Keast, and Crystal Tully on Chairman Wicker's team, who worked tirelessly to help develop and advance this legislation.
As I mentioned before, I appreciate the great work of Senator Markey, his partnership on this bill, and I want to thank the work of Daniel Greene, Joey Wender, and Bennett Butler on his staff. This truly was, Mr. President, a team effort, so I thank you.
I look forward to the President's signature on the TRACED Act in the near future, and I hope that, as this bill gets implemented, it will once again be safe to answer your phone in this country.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I appreciate that. I thank the Senator from Massachusetts. He and his staff were tremendous in working on this. As I said before, it is nice when we have an opportunity to work in a bipartisan way on something that is this meaningful in people's lives. This has a tremendous impact on the daily life of Americans who are bombarded, in many cases, not just with annoying nuisance calls, but also with calls that are very predatory and particularly when it comes to some of our vulnerable populations.
151.
The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:
Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 151) entitled ``An Act to deter criminal robocall violations and improve enforcement of section 227(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, and for other purposes'', do pass with an amendment. Motion to Concur
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that this be separate from the discussion that we are now having, but I would ask unanimous consent that at 12 p.m. today, postcloture time on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1865 expire; the other pending motions and amendments be withdrawn; and Senator Enzi or his designee be recognized to raise a budget point of order, followed by Senator Shelby or his designee to make a motion to waive the budget point of order; finally, if the motion to waive is agreed to, the Senate vote on the motion to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1865 with no intervening action or debate.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. I would say my view here is that the gentleman from Wyoming wants to explain his point of order.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. THUNE. Thank you.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source