I 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 251 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of 

caller identification information, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 5, 2007 

Mr. ENGEL (for himself and Mr. BARTON of Texas) introduced the following 

bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of caller identification information, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truth in Caller ID 

5 Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION REGARDING MANIPULATION OF 

7 CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION. 

8 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

9 U.S.C. 227) is amended— 


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1 (1) by redesignating subsections (e), (f), and 

2 (g) as subsections (f), (g), and (h), respectively; and 

3 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol4 lowing new subsection: 

5 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON PROVISION OF DECEPTIVE

6 CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—It shall be unlawful for any 

8 person within the United States, in connection with 

9 any telecommunications service or VOIP service, to 

10 cause any caller identification service to transmit 

11 misleading or inaccurate caller identification infor12 mation, with the intent to defraud or cause harm. 

13 ‘‘(2) PROTECTION FOR BLOCKING CALLER

14 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.—Nothing in this 

15 subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict 

16 any person from blocking the capability of any caller 

17 identification service to transmit caller identification 

18 information. 

19 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months 

20 after the enactment of this subsection, the Commis21 sion shall prescribe regulations to implement this 

22 subsection. 

23 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub24 section: 


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1 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMA2 TION.—The term ‘caller identification informa3 tion’ means information provided to an end 

4 user by a caller identification service regarding 

5 the telephone number of, or other information 

6 regarding the origination of, a call made using 

7 a telecommunications service or VOIP service. 

8 ‘‘(B) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.— 

9 The term ‘caller identification service’ means 

10 any service or device designed to provide the 

11 user of the service or device with the telephone 

12 number of, or other information regarding the 

13 origination of, a call made using a telecommuni14 cations service or VOIP service. Such term in15 cludes automatic number identification services. 

16 ‘‘(C) VOIP SERVICE.—The term ‘VOIP 

17 service’ means a service that— 

18 ‘‘(i) provides real-time voice commu19 nications transmitted through end user 

20 equipment using TCP/IP protocol, or a 

21 successor protocol, for a fee or without a 

22 fee; 

23 ‘‘(ii) is offered to the public, or such 

24 classes of users as to be effectively availVerDate Aug 31 2005 23:43 Jan 12, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H251.IH H251

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1 able to the public (whether part of a bun2 dle of services or separately); and 

3 ‘‘(iii) has the capability to originate 

4 traffic to, and terminate traffic from, the 

5 public switched telephone network. 

6 ‘‘(5) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this Act 

7 may be construed to affect or alter the application 

8 of the Commission’s regulations regarding the re9 quirements for transmission of caller identification 

10 information for telemarketing calls, issued pursuant 

11 to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 

12 (Public Law 102–243) and the amendments made 

13 by such Act.’’. 

Æ 


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