Bill to Crack Down on Robocalls Heads to the Presidents Desk

Press Release

On April 3rd, 2019, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) joined with his colleagues and introduced a bill to deter robocalls in the U.S. called the TRACED Act, which passed the House with bipartisan support. Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Ed Markey (D- Mass.) introduced the Senate companion bill (S. 151), which had 22 bipartisan cosponsors and passed the Senate.

Today, the TRACED Act will head to President Trump's desk and he's expected to sign this important legislation into law, to help cut down on the nuisance of robocalls.

The TRACED Act will strengthen existing penalties and existing regulations on unwanted robocalls. The bill increases civil penalties up to $10,000 per call, extends the window for the FCC enforcement actions from one year to three, and establishes a means for broad coordination between the FCC, Department of Justice, and multiple state enforcement entities. The bill also requires service providers to adopt call authentication technologies to verify that incoming calls are legitimate before they reach consumers' phones.

"Spam calling has gotten seriously out of hand," Smucker said." Day after day, too many Americans receive countless phone calls from suspicious numbers. Not only are these calls a nuisance but they are dangerous since wrongdoers can prey on vulnerable people and commit crimes with their information."

"Both sides of the aisle have come together to agree robocalls are endlessly irritating," Smucker said. "I urge the President to sign this commonsense measure and help put an end to this frustrating practice once and for all."

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