Not to be outdone by their Senate colleagues, the legislative focus on combating illegal robocalls shifts to the U.S. House of Representatives this week. The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow entitled “Legislating to Stop the Onslaught of Annoying Robocalls.” The Subcommittee, which is chaired by Congressman Michael Doyle (D-PA), is expected to consider the following bills pending before the Subcommittee.
- H.R. 946 – Stopping Bad Robocalls Act – introduced by Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ), who chairs the full Energy and Commerce Committee
- H.R. 1421 – HANGUP Act – introduced by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
- H.R. 2355 – ROBO Calls and Text Act – also introduced by Congresswoman
Anna Eshoo (D-CA)
- H.R. 721 – Spam Calls Task Force Act – introduced by Congressman Charlie Crist (D- FLA)
- H.R. 2298 – ROBOCOP Act – introduced by Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA)
- H.R. 1575 – Robocall Enforcement Act – introduced by Congressman Jefferson Van Drew (D-NJ)
- A discussion draft of the Robocall Enforcement Enhancement Act – being proposed by Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH), who is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee
A thumbnail description of each of the bills is included in the Energy and Commerce Committee Staff Memorandum, which can be accessed here. Access to the text of each bill can be found here.
Conspicuously absent from the list is the TRACED Act, which already has bi-partisan majority support in the Senate (S. 151). There are two TRACED Act bills pending before the Energy and Commerce Committee, H.R. 1602 and H.R. 2015.
Currently planned witnesses for the hearing, which is scheduled to commence at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time tomorrow, are as follows:
Mr. Aaron Foss
Founder
Nomorobo
Mr. Dave Summitt
Chief Information Security Officer
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
Fellow for the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology
Ms. Margot Saunders
Senior Counsel
National Consumer Law Center
Mr. Patrick Halley
Senior Vice President, Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs
USTelecom – The Broadband Association
The hearing should be able to be viewed over the Internet at https://energycommerce.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hearing-on-legislating-to-stop-the-onslaught-of-annoying-robocalls