A bipartisan effort is advancing in Congress to give the Federal Communications Commission updated and tougher tools to stop the epidemic of spam that now comprises almost half of all phone calls made in the United States.
The Senate is expected to take up a measure co-written by Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and one of the Senate’s most progressive members, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would broaden the FCC’s authority to impose fines of up to $10,000 per call against those who violate telemarketing restrictions.
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence, or TRACED, Act, would also give the FCC three years to take civil enforcement action against violators, up from one year under current law, which the agency says is too brief for them to adequately go after offenders.
“Existing civil penalty rules were designed to impose penalties on lawful telemarketers who make mistakes,” Thune said. “This enforcement regime is totally inadequate for scam artists, and we need do more to separate enforcement of carelessness and other mistakes from more sinister actors.”
More than 26 billion robocalls were placed in the United States last year, according to a study conducted by a Seattle firm that provides spam-blocking technology.
[Related: Congress takes on robocalls]
Congress has been investigating solutions for months, holding hearings and talking to the experts and even spammers to find out how robocalls became so prevalent and how to curtail them.
Last year, a Senate panel subpoenaed former telemarketing company CEO Adrian Abramovich, whom the FCC fined $120 million and labeled “the kingpin of robocalling.”
Abramovich, who asserted his innocence and denies he’s the top robocaller, described to the committee the widely available software a company or individual can purchase “that can be used by someone to make thousands of automated phone calls with the click of a button.”
He said a simple Google search will display websites that offer volume pricing for robocalling systems that can handle “millions and millions of calls.”
“Clearly, regulation needs to address the carriers and providers and require the major carriers to detect robocall activity,” Abramovich told the panel.
The Thune-Markey measure would require phone companies to develop and adopt authentication technologies that give them the ability to ensure only legitimate calls make it to consumer phones. The bill would direct the FCC to pass new rules that would protect consumers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from spammers.
The FCC is already working to target and end spam calls, the commission’s Chairman Ajit Pai told Fox Business Network recently.
“We have told the industry that we expect them to adopt what is called call authentication, essentially a digital fingerprint for every phone call, this year,” Pai told Fox. “And if they don’t, the FCC will take action to make sure they do.”
But host Maria Bartiromo pointed out the FCC has collected less than $7,000 out of $208 million in fines the commission has issued since 2015.
“We have imposed all those fines, as you pointed out,” Pai said. “We’ve referred those cases to the Department of Justice, which is in charge of collecting those fines. And we’ve emphasized to the Justice Department, this is one of our top consumer protection priorities. We need you to make this an issue to send a signal to all of the robocallers out there, even the ones who are beyond our shores, this is not going to stand for American consumers.”
