Congress Passes Stevens' Legislation to Improve Do-Not-Call List

Press Release

Congress Passes Stevens' Legislation to Improve Do-Not-Call List

The United States Congress last night approved two pieces of legislation to extend and improve the Do-Not-Call registry. These measures were sponsored by Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). This action will send both bills to President Bush to be signed into law.

The Do-Not-Call Registry Fee Extension Act of 2007 (S.781) and the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007 (H.R. 3541) will allow the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to collect fees to maintain the registry and remove the need for consumers to re-register their information on the Do-Not-Call list. Currently, more than 200,000 Alaskan numbers have been listed in that registry.

"The passage of this legislation further protects American consumers by making the Do-Not-Call list the Never-Call list," said Senator Stevens. "This registry has dramatically limited the number of unwanted calls to thousands of Alaskans and assisted the Federal Trade Commission in preventing telemarketing fraud and abuse."

Without this legislation, each number in the Do-Not-Call registry would have expired five years after its initial registration. Nearly 52 million numbers would have expired before September 30, 2008.

S. 781, which passed the House last night after being approved by the Senate in December, would:

* extend the FTC's authority to collect funds to maintain the Do-Not-Call registry; and
* provide financial certainty to entities that utilize the registry by standardizing yearly fee increases for use of the registry's list.

H.R. 3541, which passed the Senate yesterday after being approved by the House in December, would:

* remove the need for consumers currently on the list to have to re-register; and
* ask the FTC to report to Congress on its efforts to improve the accuracy of the Do-Not-Call list.

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