Pallone, Thune Release Anti-Robocall Traced Act Compromise Text; House Vote Expected Next Week

House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and Senate Communications Subcommittee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., released the final text of the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act Wednesday. They announced earlier this month they had reached an “agreement in principle” (see 1911150065) on a compromise that would combine elements of the original Senate-passed Traced Act (S-151) and the House-passed Stopping Bad Robocalls Act (HR-3375). Both chambers will vote on the compromise text as an amendment to the original S-151. Pallone said in a statement he hopes the House will vote on the measure “very soon,” with Hill aides pegging it to happen next week. The joint text would increase FCC enforcement authority, allowing it to levy civil penalties of up to $10,000 per call when the caller intentionally flouts the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The bill would extend to up to four years the window for civil enforcement. The FCC would be required to begin a rulemaking to help protect subscribers from receiving unwanted calls or texts from callers using unauthenticated numbers (see 1901170039). The measure also would direct the agency to issue rules requiring carriers to offer opt-out robocall blocking and caller ID services to consumers for free (see 1906200061) and initiate a proceeding “to protect called parties from one-ring scams.” It directs the attorney general and FCC to convene an interagency working group to study federal prosecutions of robocall violations in a bid to increase DOJ activity in that area. It also directs the FCC Enforcement Bureau to give the attorney general any evidence “that suggests a willful, knowing, and repeated robocall violation with an intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value.” FCC Commissioners Mike O'Rielly and Jessica Rosenworcel hailed the compromise. “I appreciate it addresses some issue I raised over many years,” O'Rielly tweeted. “Robocall solutions should be FREE for consumers,” Rosenworcel tweeted. “They didn’t create this mess fouling up their phone lines, they shouldn’t have to pay to fix it.”