A consumer group warned Congress Wednesday that a change to federal law in 2015 is “very dangerous” because it now allows the government to use automated phone calls to collect debt, which runs the risk of exposing people to phone scams.
A Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing examined whether recent federal regulation is subjecting citizens to harassing automated phone calls. At issue is the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was revised by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 to allow for robocalls to cellphones for government debt collection.
Margot Saunders, counsel for the National Consumer Law Center, testified in front of the committee Wednesday that before the change, people were told that government agencies would not try to collect money with prerecorded messages.
“But now, because the IRS can hire debt collectors and because the IRS debt collectors can robocall without consent,” the resulting confusion makes people more susceptible to scams, she said.
Sauders testified that the change to the law has led to other problems, including increased complaints about harassing calls and texts. She testified that in 2015, only one lawsuit was filed for every 1,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission about unwanted calls. She cited a number of recent cases illustrating why prerecorded messages remain one of the biggest consumer issues.
According to her written testimony, Yahoo sent nearly 30,000 texts to one phone, yet maintained that it was not required to stop because a previous subscriber had consented. In another, Chase Auto Finance sent a person who was not a customer over 80 calls relating to someone else’s debt.
Saunders testified that in many cases, “the caller had decided that it was simply more cost effective to ignore the express wishes of these consumers and continue to make these automated calls.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said companies should be able to use existing technology to let consumers opt out of these messages, so they don’t “need to call them 40 times to figure out it was a reassigned number.”
Monica Desai, partner at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, said current law is putting undue pressure on companies, which are struggling to figure out who can be called and who can’t. She recommended creating a single, comprehensive phone number database to make it easier for companies to comply.
Desai argued in her written testimony that the language of the TCPA harms companies by exposing them to “potentially ruinous liability for every single call or text,” noting many small businesses do not have the resources to comply with the current interpretation of the law.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller testified that after the 2015 change to the law, people are less likely to favor other changes that erode consumer protections. Zoeller said when he tells citizens that “the U.S. Congress is thinking about opening up new exemptions to allow robocalling to cellphones, they’re outraged.”
“Not to say that it might diminish the high standing that the Congress is held by the public, but you really risk the fear that people are going to come here with pitchforks and torches” because of the passion behind the issue, testified Zoeller.
According to Gallup, Congress currently maintains a 79 percent disapproval rating.
