Daines , Tester Vote to Hang Up on Robocalls

(U.S. Senate) – U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester voted to hang up on robocalls today, helping pass the bipartisan Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act?—also known as the TRACED Act—through the Senate today.

“Across Montana, folks are being inundated by illegal robocalls,” Daines said. “It’s long overdue that Montanans are protected from these illegal calls. I’m glad my Senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle supported this important legislation. We must crack down on these bad actors and stop this abuse once and for all!” 

“We’ve got to stop the incessant ring of robocalls,” Tester said. “The TRACED Act will do that by empowering regulators to identify robocalls before your phone starts ringing and block them at the source. It will also help the FCC to track bad actors buying numbers in bulk, while giving them more time to build a case against the worst robocall offenders.”

Click HERE to watch a video from Daines.

In the wake of a record 26 billion robocalls placed in the United States last year, the TRACED Act includes a number of provisions aimed at silencing the incessant ring of robocalls for good. The bill:

  • Extends the time frame in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can catch and punish companies or individuals that intentionally break telemarketing restrictions from one year to three.
  • Requires voice service providers to implement an authentication framework to verify that incoming calls are legitimate before they reach consumers’ phones.
  • Directs the FCC to craft a plan to block calls that cannot be authenticated through the framework.
  • Directs the FCC to track which organizations or individuals purchase which phone numbers in order to identify and trace robocall violators.

Establishes an Interagency Working Group to make recommendations to Congress on how to improve deterrence and criminal prosecution of robocall scams at the federal and state levels. The group would include representatives from the Department of Justice, FCC, Federal Trade Commission, Department of Commerce, Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and other relevant federal agencies, as well as state attorneys general and other non-federal entities

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