Hanging Up on the Robocall Scourge
By Sen. John Thune
Believe it or not, there’s a bill in Washington that’s sponsored by a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat; cosponsored by more than half of the Senate; supported by every single state attorney general in the nation, including South Dakota’s; and embraced by all commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in addition to major industry associations and leading consumer groups. My Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act checks all of those boxes, and I’m glad to see momentum is continuing to build for this truly bipartisan, pro-consumer effort.
I first introduced the TRACED Act late last year on the heels of my effort to find a solution to end those annoying, illegal, and abusive robocalls that we’re all sick of receiving. You’ve probably heard similar stories or experienced it firsthand, but the calls were getting so bad that some people told me they’d given up answering their phone altogether unless incoming calls were from a number that was already in their phone. Living in fear, anxiety, or annoyance every time the phone rings shouldn’t be the new normal.
When I served as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FTC and FCC, I wanted to hear directly from someone who’s behind one of these calling schemes, so I invited notorious mass robocaller Adrian Abramovich to testify before my committee. While he declined my invitation (it was pretty obvious why he didn’t want to voluntarily attend), I issued a subpoena and forced him to appear. Such subpoenas are rare. In my four years serving as chairman, I issued only four of them, which shows just how serious of an issue this was to me.
I learned two important lessons from Mr. Abramovich: First, there are few issues, if any, that spark bipartisan fervor quite like the prospect of banning illegal robocalls; and second, current law and existing financial penalties are insufficient to tackle this problem in a real way. People like Mr. Abramovich simply calculated fines and penalties into the cost of doing business. That’s when the TRACED Act was born.
While I’ll admit that my TRACED Act wouldn’t immediately stop every single illegal robocall, I can say that passing it would be one of the most significant steps toward thwarting these nuisance calls since the National Do Not Call registry was created more than 15 years ago. My bill would significantly increase the financial penalty for making these illegal calls, give carriers more tools and flexibility to prevent these calls from reaching your phone in the first place, and, most importantly, work toward creating a credible threat of criminal prosecution (serving behind bars) for the bad guys who are perpetrating these crimes.
I now serve as chairman of the Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation, and the Internet, which is tasked with tackling this issue, and I recently held a hearing to discuss the TRACED Act and the broader issue of illegal robocalls. I hosted a panel of law enforcement professionals, telecommunications experts, and consumer advocates who all agree that now is the time to take action, and the TRACED Act would provide the teeth that law enforcement and regulators need to better address this problem.
The TRACED Act has a lot of support in Washington and around the country. It was unanimously approved earlier this year by the Commerce Committee, and it’s now heading to the full Senate for consideration, where I’m hopeful it will also receive wide bipartisan support. Getting this bill to the president’s desk would put us in a stronger, more effective position to manage this threat and protect the vulnerable populations these bad actors target. That’s my goal, and I’m working to make it happen.
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I view an unsolicited telemarketer much the same as an unwanted political campaign. Always originating from somewhere other than here and preying upon a sense of urgency. Unwanted speech and commerce via a subscription. Good enough for the Feds but not the State.
Completely & enthusiastically support Senator Thune’s effort to “end those annoying, illegal, and abusive robocalls that we’re all sick of receiving…the calls were getting so bad that some people told me they’d given up answering their phone altogether unless incoming calls were from a number already in their phone.” Yep. We adopted that policy years ago. Happy to hear of useful, productive legislation, such as the TRACED Act, finding broad bipartisan support in D.C.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to have the fines go to the victims.
Good suggestion. I’d like to see a private right of action awarding victims $20 per illegal call, plus reasonable collection costs.
Another major issue is that with the millions in fines against these illegal robo callers only about $7,000 has been collected or some small amount like this. We need better enforcement and teeth to go after hidden assets and/or serious prison time.
It’s not hard to imagine a phone setting that lets only calls from your contact list get through. This would be nice…..I don’t understand why my phone doesn’t already have that option.
I’d be surprised if it didn’t… google your model and call-blocking.
This is a valiant effort but I don’t see it having any real-world effect. With the complexity or lack of international law, scammers will move operations to other countries and continue spoofing local phone numbers. It’s probably going to come down to the consumer blocking calls on their device. I guess we’ll see.
If the spoofing were eliminated and a valid trace was made how about a drone strike minimizing collateral damage? Boom! One less robo-phone scammer.
This is another version of the Thune cow fart, dust regulation “emergencies” of years past. It is so easy to block the crap and smart people do it. Dumb people depend on Thune to blather on about it and in the end do nothing.
You people might deserve Thune, but the rest of the country doesn’t.
I just wish you could keep him in your state.
Does it block robocalls from councilwoman stehly??