US Senator Welch’s office announced on Tuesday that the Foreign Robocall Elimination Act (the “Act”) is gaining traction and moving forward in the Commerce Committee. The bipartisan Act, supported by Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.), seeks to put together a task force from both federal agencies and specific members from private sector entities.
The task force will be charged with compiling a comprehensive report for Congress within 360 days of formation on unlawful robocalls entering the US. The goal is to root out overseas scammers and fraudsters targeting the American people, who contribute to the staggering number of monetary losses each year, along with illegal calls, while also equipping the Department of Justice with the ability to prosecute the criminals behind the foreign robocalls.
A list of topics from the Act includes:
(A) compare the estimated number of suspected unlawful robocalls made within the United States with the estimated number of unlawful robocalls made into the United States from outside the United States;
(B) determine which foreign countries serve as the foreign points of departure for the highest volume of unlawful robocalls made into the United States;
(C) determine the magnitude of financial loss and the number of instances of stolen identity that occur within the United States each year as a result of unlawful robocalls made from outside the United States;
(D) examine methods for encouraging the adoption of caller identification authentication technology in foreign countries;
(E) examine and provide information on options for how countries can collaborate on solutions to authenticate and verify international calls, including relevant analytics relating to unlawful robocalls and technical options that can be used with respect to that authentication and verification;
(F) examine how better implementation of technical solutions, such as traceback and caller identification authentication technology in foreign originating countries, would improve coordination between the United States and foreign countries in combating unlawful robocalls;
(G) determine whether—
(i) the technical standards commonly known as ‘‘STIR/SHAKEN’’ adequately provide call authentication for unlawful robocalls from foreign originating providers or foreign intermediate providers through gateway providers in the United States; and
(ii) it would be desirable to encourage other countries to adopt the standards described in clause (i);
(H) determine if coordination with respect to technologies and incentives to combat unlawful robocalls placed from outside the United States into the United States can help inform strategies to combat potentially fraudulent, or otherwise unlawful, text messages sent from persons outside the United States to persons within the United States;
(I) examine ways to provide incentives to foreign countries to cooperate with law enforcement efforts in the United States to combat unlawful robocalls;
(J) examine whether any Federal agency, or any other organization, that combats unlawful robocalls needs additional resources in order to more effectively combat unlawful robocalls made into the United States from outside the United States;
(K) specifically consider whether the ability of the Attorney General to conduct enforcement activities with respect to unlawful robocalls would be increased through the establishment of an office within the Department of Justice dedicated to those enforcement activities;
(L) examine how increased criminal penalties based on the volume of unlawful robocalls could help prevent unlawful robocalls made into the United States;
(M) examine how many enforcement activities the Attorney General has undertaken in the year preceding the date on which the preparation of the report begins, including in response to referrals made by the Commission;
(N) specifically determine how the Attorney General has pursued forfeiture amounts in enforcement activities with respect to unlawful robocalls;
(O) seek input, as appropriate, from technologists and private sector innovators to find solutions for combating unlawful robocalls; and
(P) identify a list of best practices regarding the identification and blocking of unlawful robocalls that telephone service providers and providers of technology solutions can voluntarily implement to improve the effectiveness of mitigating unlawful robocalls made into the United States from outside the United States.
The Act will also extend the FCC’s renewal period from “annually” to “once every 3 years” of designating the consortium that leads the trace back efforts.
With this being the first piece of legislation to have progress in the Senate Commerce Committee since 2020, we will keep a close eye on it.
