Congressman Panetta Votes for Bill to Combat Robocalls

WASHINGTON, DC – On Wednesday, December 4, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley) voted for the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act. The bipartisan, bicameral agreement requires phone companies to offer screening technology to identify and block spam robocalls at no cost to customers. The legislation passed 417-3.



"Robocallers use all sorts of tactics, including fake phone numbers, to trick us to answer their calls. This bill will help to prevent those kinds of abusive practices by robocallers and give law enforcement the ability to quickly go after scammers," said Congressman Panetta. "I urge the Senate to pass this bill swiftly and get it onto the President’s desk so that it can be signed into law."



This bill is a result of negotiations that merged the Senate-passed TRACED Act and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act. The Pallone-Thune TRACED Act will cut back on unlawful robocalls made to landlines and cellphones by requiring that carriers offer call-authentication technology to consumers and small businesses—in rural and urban America—at no additional line-item charge, so Americans can again trust that the number on their caller-ID is correct. The bill also requires that opt-in or opt-out robocall blocking be offered at no additional charge to consumers. The bill will further help the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) step up enforcement actions against unlawful robocalls, help push the Department of Justice to bring more criminal prosecutions against criminal robocallers, require the FCC to work to stop one-ring scams, help the FCC and responsible carriers traceback and cutoff the dodgy phone companies responsible for sending vast numbers of unlawful robocalls, and protect patients and doctors from unlawful robocalls.