S. 151

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, I rise in support of the TRACED Act, a piece of legislation that will help all Americans deal with the epidemic of robocalls, which afflicts them and their families every single day of the year.

I thank Chairman Wicker for all of his assistance in moving this legislation expeditiously through the legislative process.

I thank my partner, Senator Thune from South Dakota. He and I have worked very hard to reach this moment where Democrats and Republicans can come together on an issue, which we all agree is something that we have to address in a very serious way.

So this question of robocalls and their role in American society, well, it is a daily deluge of calls that Americans experience. It is more than a nuisance in 2019. It is a consumer protection crisis.

Americans across the country face an epidemic of robocalls bombarding landlines and mobile phones. While our phones were once a reliable means of communication, they have been turned against us and are now mechanisms for scammers and fraudsters who wish to do us harm. The numbers are staggering.

In 2018, consumers received an estimated 48 billion robocalls--18 billion more than in 2017. That is 131 million robocalls per day--more than 5 million calls an hour, more than 1,000 calls per second in the United States, and nearly 500 million robocalls to Massachusetts residents alone.

The reality is that we no longer have confidence in our phones. What was once a trusted means of communication, our phone has become a tool for fraud, scams, harassment, and an avenue by which individuals with bad intent can access our homes, our purses, or our pockets at any time.

Caller ID is not trusted. Important calls go unanswered. Innocent Americans are defrauded. Our seniors, in particular, are targeted. Robocalls are a menace. But today, the U.S. Senate is saying loud and clear that robocall relief is in sight.

I am proud to partner with Senator John Thune from South Dakota on the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act, or TRACED Act. Our legislation cracks down on scammers that now account for nearly one-half of all of the robocalls in our country. It is an unbelievable number. One-half of all of the robocalls are now being delivered by scammers trying to take advantage of innocent Americans.

Years ago, scammers needed expensive, sophisticated equipment to robocall and robotext consumers en masse. Today, they just need a smartphone to target thousands of phones an hour at literally very little expense. So something has changed, and we know it has changed, and this is our opportunity here today to do something about it.

These new technologies allow illegal robocallers to conduct fraud anonymously, depriving both Federal regulators and consumers the ability to identify and punish the culprit. By passing this legislation today, we are sending a clear message to these fraudulent robocallers: Your days are numbered.

Stopping robocalls requires a simple formula, which we have included in the TRACED Act--authentication, No. 1; blocking, No. 2; and tougher enforcement, No. 3.

First, this bill requires telephone carriers to adopt call authentication technologies so that they can verify that incoming calls are legitimate or authentic before they reach consumers' phones. This must be mandatory for every single phone carrier in the United States.

Second, the Federal Communications Commission must require callers to block unverified calls--fake calls--something the Commission has yet to do.

Third, we need to increase from 1 year to 3 years the time for the Federal Communications Commission to pursue penalties for robocallers that intentionally violate the rules. That is the recipe for success, and that is what the TRACED Act does.

This bill we will vote on today has enormous support across the country: 54 State and Territory attorneys general, all of the Commissioners at the Federal Communications Commission and at the Federal Trade Commission, major industry associations, and leading consumer groups endorse the legislation and agree that the TRACED Act is an essential weapon in combating the rise of illegal, fraudulent robocalls.

Senator Thune and I are joined by over 80 of our colleagues in support of this bill. This is not a liberal or a conservative issue; it is an ``everyone'' issue. It affects the elderly, the young, the small business owner, and the student. Our grandparents, our neighbors, our teachers, and our coworkers--today, no one is spared from this consumer protection pandemic.

Senator Thune and I have worked together, but it would not have been possible without the great work of groups like the National Consumer Law Center, AARP, Consumer Reports, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action, the National Association of Attorneys General, USTelecom, CTIA, NTCA, and so, so many more. These groups joined the chorus of countless Americans who have raised their voices and called on Congress to pass this bipartisan, commonsense legislation, and we thank each and every one of them.

There are no blue robocalls. There are no red robocalls. All there are are robocalls attacking every home in our country and every person walking around with a wireless device on their person. This is something that we finally have a chance today to do something about--to pass meaningful legislation that will begin this process of curtailing this scourge of robocalls that is an abuse of every single American every single day of the year.

We thank everyone for all of their great work on this issue. Again, I thank my great partner, John Thune, and his staff for their partnership on this legislation. I thank my staff--Joey Wender, who is sitting out here on the floor; Daniel Greene; and, as well, Bennett Butler, who is sitting right behind me. They worked on a bipartisan basis with Republican staffers to craft this very important piece of legislation. Again, I thank Senator Thune and I thank Senator Wicker for ensuring that America now has a chance to see that this body is going to work to begin an end to this epidemic.

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Mr. MARKEY. Thank you, Madam President.

Again, I want to thank the Senator from South Dakota for his great leadership on this legislation. I think it is a start. It is a revolution in the telecommunications industry that we are going to be voting on here today.

I want to thank you so much for your great leadership.

Once again, I thank Senator Wicker and Senator Cantwell for helping to bring this out here to let the American people know we are going to take action to stop this plague from affecting their families.

Thank you so much.

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