On December 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the TRACED Act (S. 151) by a 417-3 vote. The House version mergers provisions of S. 151 passed by the Senate in May with the Stop Bad Robocalls Act (H.R. 3375). H.R. 3375 was passed by the House in July. Among its provisions the Engrossed House bill for S. 151 would do the following:- Require carriers to implement call-authentication technology consumers and small businesses free of charge;
- Require carriers to provide opt-in or opt-out robocall-blocking to consumers free of charge;
- Authorize the FCC to assess penalties of up to $10,000 for each unwanted robocall for those intentionally violating telemarketing restrictions;
- Extend to four years the statute of limitations for Commission enforcement actions against illegal robocalls;
- Require the Commission to make annual reports to Congress on anti-robocall enforcement;
- Require the Commission to conduct a rulemaking to protect subscribers from unwanted calls or texts from unauthenticated numbers by using new authentication methods;
- Require the Commission to conduct a rulemaking on combatting one-ring scams meant to impose charges on unsuspecting consumers that call them back; and
- Require the Commission to establish a process for certifying when carriers have or have not participated in private initiatives to trace unlawful robocalls to their source, and also to report on such participation as well as follow through with necessary enforcement actions.
According to reports, the similarity of the House's bill to the Senate bill makes it likely that the Senate will concur in the changes or otherwise reach consensus with the House and that the TRACED Act or "Pallone-Thune bill" will go to President Donald Trump for signature.
Additionally, on December 11, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed a substitute version of the Data Analytics Robocall Technology Act of 2019 or "DART Act" (S. 2204). The DART Act would require the FCC to issue a rulemaking on maintaining a list of numbers that are not eligible to be blocked by carriers, such as emergency- or weather-related numbers. The bill also would require the Commission to report to Congress on implementation of call-blocking and caller-ID authentication.
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