Costa Votes to End Abusive Robocalls

Press Release

Congressman Jim Costa (CA-16) voted to pass H.R. 3375, the bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, to bring much needed relief to Americans threatened by abusive robocall practices.

"The epidemic of spam robocalls has become a serious threat to the health and economic security of families in California and throughout America," said Costa. "I cosponsored this important piece of bipartisan legislation because it is a critical step toward strengthening consumer protections and ending the scourge of robocalls that at best can be misleading, and at worst a waste of time. This can be done without costing American families a single penny."

Last year, an estimated 47.8 billion robocalls were placed nationwide, an increase of 17 billion calls over the previous year. This represents a rising risk to the American people as robocallers intensify their scams to defraud consumers, disrupt our health care system and more. Rep. Costa believes members of Congress have a responsibility to hold scammers responsible for their abusive practices and protect the American people from this abuse.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act:

Requires that phone carriers implement call authentication technology so consumers can trust their caller ID;
Allows carriers to offer call blocking services to consumers at no additional charge and with safeguards to ensure important calls aren't inadvertently blocked;
Directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to issue rules to protect consumers from calls they didn't agree to receive and to ensure consumers can withdraw consent;
Requires the FCC to enact safeguards so companies can't abuse robocall exemptions;
Ensures the FCC has the authority and the tools to take strong, quick action when it tracks down robocallers.

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