Anti-robocall legislation sails through House by a landslide

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in iPhone edited July 2019
A bipartisan act designed to combat unwanted robocalls in the U.S. passed the House of Representatives in a decisive 429-3 vote on Wednesday, pushing the legislation one step closer to ratification.




The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, sponsored by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), aims to put an end to spam phone calls by leveling business requirements on carriers and bolstering Federal Communications Commission authority to take action against offenders.

Under the bill, carriers must implement call authentication technology like STIR/SHAKEN and offer call blocking services to customers free of charge. Further, the FCC is directed to issue rules protecting customers from unsolicited communications, enact safeguards against robocall exemption abuse and report back to Congress on program effectiveness.

A provision also grants the FCC a more robust set of punitive options when dealing with robocallers. For example, the commission can take action against an offender up to four years after an initial violation, up from the one year afforded under the current statute of limitations.

The legislation, brought to the floor by Pallone and fellow sponsors Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden (R-OR), Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Ranking Member Bob Latta (R-OH), passed with immense support from members on both sides of the aisle.

"Today, the House of Representatives voted to restore Americans' confidence in the telephone system and put consumers back in charge of their phones," the bill's sponsors said in a statement. "We're proud of the strong support our bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act received this afternoon and look forward to working with our colleagues in the Senate to produce a bill that the President can sign into law. The American people are counting on us to help end the robocall epidemic, and we will deliver for them."

Certain domestic carriers already implement forms of anti-spam technology, like AT&T's Call Protect, but in some cases monthly subscriptions are required to access a full slate of services. Today's bill forces providers to offer comparable call screening tech to consumers without fees.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act first surfaced in June, about a month after the Senate forwarded a similar bill called the TRACED Act.

Apple, too, is working on technology to slow the robocalling plague, which according to an FCC report resulted in some 48 billion unwanted calls in 2018. The Cupertino tech giant's upcoming iOS 13 operating system includes a new feature that uses artificial intelligence to identify and silence incoming calls from unknown parties.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    Who are the 3 morons who voted for it?..🤦🏽‍♂️
    nomadmacdoozydozenairnerdcincymacmontrosemacs
     5Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 2 of 33
    flydogflydog Posts: 1,149member
    Won’t change a thing. 
    dysamoriamwhite
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 3 of 33
    Hmmmmm.

    Any company soliciting 'over the phone' is a 'Dogsh*t' company.

    It's as simple as that!




    P.S. Oops. Sorry for the exclamation mark. The rule, is to only use the exclamation mark, once every 300,000 words.

    P.S.S. Coincidentally, on average, people only write 300,000 words in their lifetime. :)
    edited July 2019
    elijahgwatto_cobra
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  • Reply 4 of 33
    "called the TRACED Act"
    Stop it. Stop doing this.
    designrpscooter63elijahg
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 5 of 33
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    Who are the 3 morons who voted for it?..🤦🏽‍♂️
    You mean against it?
    doozydozenmwhiteJFC_PAelijahgjbdragoncincymacmontrosemacs
     7Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 6 of 33
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    "Today, the House of Representatives voted to restore Americans' confidence in the telephone system and put consumers back in charge of their phones," 

    I’ll believe it when I see it.
    nomadmacmwhite
     2Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 7 of 33
    I've followed this, but not closely enough to know if this does anything about spam text messages, especially group spam/phishing texts. After years of not being troubled with this, I've started getting one of these every few weeks, always from a "girl in [my] neighborhood" looking for hookups, by implication. Each time I've gotten one of these messages, I suspect the originating number is spoofed, and there's always a different URL embedded in the message. No, I don't click it and I add every phone number on the list to Verizon's block list.

    It's tedious and it's gotten old already. Plus, I'm careful giving out my phone number to websites, so I'm not sure how my number even got onto this spammer database.
    pscooter63dysamoriawatto_cobra
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  • Reply 8 of 33
    Solisoli Posts: 10,038member
    P.S.S. Coincidentally, on average, people only write 300,000 words in their lifetime. :)
    What?!! That seems really low.
    edited July 2019
    jbdragon
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 9 of 33
    AirOgreairogre Posts: 1member
    dysamoria said:
    Who are the 3 morons who voted for it?..ߤ氟ヲzwj;♂️
    You mean against it?

    Voting no:

    Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
    Thomas Massie (R-KY)
    Justin Amash (I-MI) [Formerly Republican, now Independent]
    edited July 2019
    nomadmacdysamoriadoozydozenjbdragonairnerdcincymacStrangeDaysbadmonk
     1Like 0Dislikes 7Informatives
  • Reply 10 of 33
    Soli said:
    P.S.S. Coincidentally, on average, people only write 300,000 words in their lifetime. :)
    What?!! That seems really low.
    It's a joke....but somewhat accurate.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 11 of 33
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,780member
    dysamoria said:
    "Today, the House of Representatives voted to restore Americans' confidence in the telephone system and put consumers back in charge of their phones," 

    I’ll believe it when I see it.
    Well, just as a refresher on US lawmaking, this is the start of the process. The House has passed literally hundreds of bills on all manner of topics this session -- indeed it would be considered by far the most productive House session in recent memory, but for one thing: the Senate Majority Leader is simply not taking up these bills. At all. The last time I checked, there was over 200 bills stalled by the Senate leader.

    NORMALLY, the Senate passes its own version of House bills (or rejects them by voting), then a committee reconciles the two versions to send on for the President's signature (or veto). This hasn't happened for nearly all bills passed by the House. There is apparently no penalty for this behaviour.
    SolinomadmacdysamoriamontrosemacsroundaboutnowStrangeDaysjony0
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  • Reply 12 of 33
    Soli said:
    P.S.S. Coincidentally, on average, people only write 300,000 words in their lifetime. :)
    What?!! That seems really low.

    That comes from a survey that is 84.736% accurate.
    JWSCcincymacwatto_cobra
     3Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 13 of 33
    irelandireland Posts: 17,802member
    We solved this ages ago in our home. We bought a replica retro dial phone for making house calls that has a physical switch on the bottom that completely silences the ringer.
    JWSC
     1Like 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 14 of 33
    I wonder if this applies to VOIP calls, which are the majority of the spam calls I get.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 15 of 33
    JFC_PAjfc_pa Posts: 970member
    For my iPhone I have an ironclad rule. Either it’s a recognized number from my contact list or they leave a voicemail. Everything else gets deleted. No voicemail? No problem: delete. My landline isn’t plugged in until I want to call out. And yet between my plugging it in and my punching in the number I wanted to call I’ve received spam calls!
    edited July 2019
    cincymacwatto_cobra
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  • Reply 16 of 33
    Until it imposes the same penalties on Congresscritters' robo calls, I'll remain skeptical.
    watto_cobra
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  • Reply 17 of 33
    goofy1958goofy1958 Posts: 168member
    Until it imposes the same penalties on Congresscritters' robo calls, I'll remain skeptical.
    AT&T's Call Protect already has the option to block political calls.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 18 of 33
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    Can they take a look at the TV ads that are 2-300% louder than the programs again, please? I thought that had been voted on almost unanimously, a while back.
    cincymacwatto_cobra
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  • Reply 19 of 33
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,315member
    AirOgre said:
    dysamoria said:
    Who are the 3 morons who voted for it?..ߤ氟ヲzwj;♂️
    You mean against it?

    Voting no:

    Andy Biggs (R-AZ)
    Thomas Massie (R-KY)
    Justin Amash (I-MI) [Formerly Republican, now Independent]

    I can understand the reasoning for voting NO, but this is such an issue for everyone on both sides that it easily passed the house.  But it's only the first step.  Odds are it'll get though and signed off by Trump!

     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 20 of 33
    JFC_PA said:
    For my iPhone I have an ironclad rule. Either it’s a recognized number from my contact list or they leave a voicemail. Everything else gets deleted. No voicemail? No problem: delete. My landline isn’t plugged in until I want to call out. And yet between my plugging it in and my punching in the number I wanted to call I’ve received spam calls!
    I do the same. Additionally, I make the effort to 'Block' all those numbers. :)
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
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