Anti-Spoofing Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3670, the Anti-Spoofing Act, which I authored along with Congressman Barton and Congressman Lance.

The bill addresses the problem of caller ID spoofing, which is the scrambling of caller identification numbers. It is a tool often used to defraud unwitting recipients of phone calls and text messages.

It is often stated that a measure of a society is how it treats its most vulnerable. Almost every day, I receive new reports of caller ID spoofing that harms the most vulnerable in our society. Immigrants, seniors, veterans, and those in need of help from law enforcement are all primary victims here. That is why this bill is endorsed by senior citizen groups, law enforcement groups, and consumer protection groups.

Shortly after entering Congress, I pursued this issue because of complaints from a local civic organization and seniors in my district. But I quickly realized it is affecting Americans in all corners of our country, in all of our districts.

I think the fact that this is plaguing so many of our communities is a big reason why we have so much bipartisan support here for this bill.

H.R. 3670 is an update to the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009. That legislation first criminalized malicious caller ID spoofing. But since the passage of that law, scammers have used legal loopholes and new technologies to circumvent it, thus, malicious caller ID spoofing is on the rapid rise again.

So it is time to strengthen and tighten existing law and shut down the routes by which it is being circumvented, and that is what our bill does. H.R. 3670 sets forth three important changes to current law.

Number one, the bill broadens current law to prohibit caller ID spoofing from foreigners. This is crucial because U.S.-based companies now spoof calls to U.S. residents with intent to do harm, but originate such calls from outside of the United States.

Number two, the bill broadens current law to include new Internet-based Voice Over IP services that enable callers to make outgoing only calls from computers and tablets to mobile and landline phones. This is a technology that was undeveloped in 2009 when the Truth in Caller ID Act was adopted and, therefore, unaccounted for in the law. But it has now grown and has contributed significantly to the caller ID spoofing problem.

Number three, finally, our bill broadens current law to include text messaging.

In closing, I would like to thank Mr. Barton and Mr. Lance for working with me to write this bill, Chairmen Upton and Walden and Ranking Members Waxman and Eshoo for all their guidance and leadership, the Communications and Technology Subcommittee members, most of whom gave this bill great time and support, and all the other cosponsors.

I would also like to thank the committee and personal staffs for all of their hard work.

I urge a ``yes'' vote for H.R. 3670.

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