1B

Union Calendar No. 8

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 90

[Report No. 107–13]

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from

interfering with the caller identification service of any person to whom

a telephone solicitation is made, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 3, 2001

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Energy and Commerce

MARCH 12, 2001

Additional sponsors: Mr. BACA, Mr. GREENWOOD, Mr. HORN, Mr. MEEKS of

New York, Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD, Ms. BERKLEY, Mr. WATKINS,

Mr. CASTLE, Mr. FRANK, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. PALLONE, Mr. BASS, Mr.

REGULA, Mr. LUCAS of Kentucky, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. THOMAS M.

DAVIS of Virginia, Mr. MCHUGH, Mr. PETRI, Mr. BENTSEN, Mr.

GILCHREST, Mr. WAMP, Mr. PASCRELL, Mr. QUINN, Mrs. EMERSON, Mr.

SIMMONS, Mr. HOLT, Mr. BALDACCI, Mr. MCINTYRE, Mr. HOLDEN, Mr.

LANTOS, Mr. ROTHMAN, Ms. HART, Mr. HILLEARY, Mr. HINCHEY, Mr.

MCDERMOTT, Mr. GILLMOR, Mr. LARSON of Connecticut, Mr. EVANS,

Mr. BAIRD, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. STRICKLAND, Ms. RIVERS, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. LOBIONDO, Mr. UPTON, Mr. HAYWORTH, Mr. PHELPS, Mr.

GOODLATTE, Mrs. MORELLA, Mr. SCHIFF, and Mr. ROSS

MARCH 12, 2001

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union

and ordered to be printed
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A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from interfering with the caller identification

service of any person to whom a telephone solicitation

is made, 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 ‘‘Know Your Caller Act

5 of 2001’’.

6 SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

7 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.

8 Section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

9 U.S.C. 227) is amended—

10 (1) by redesignating subsections (e) and (f) as

11 subsections (f) and (g), respectively; and

12 (2) by inserting after subsection (d) the fol13 lowing new subsection:

14 ‘‘(e) PROHIBITION ON INTERFERENCE WITH CALLER

15 IDENTIFICATION SERVICES.—

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

17 person within the United States, in making any tele18 phone solicitation—

19 ‘‘(A) to interfere with or circumvent the

20 capability of a caller identification service to ac21 cess or provide to the recipient of the telephone
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1 call involved in the solicitation any information

2 regarding the call that such service is capable

3 of providing; and

4 ‘‘(B) to fail to provide caller identification

5 information in a manner that is accessible by a

6 caller identification service, if such person has

7 capability to provide such information in such a

8 manner.

9 For purposes of this section, the use of a tele10 communications service or equipment that is incapa11 ble of transmitting caller identification information

12 shall not, of itself, constitute interference with or

13 circumvention of the capability of a caller identifica14 tion service to access or provide such information.

15 ‘‘(2) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 6 months

16 after the enactment of the Know Your Caller Act of

17 2001, the Commission shall prescribe regulations to

18 implement this subsection, which shall—

19 ‘‘(A) specify that the information regard20 ing a call that the prohibition under paragraph

21 (1) applies to includes—

22 ‘‘(i) the name of the person or entity

23 who makes the telephone call involved in

24 the solicitation;
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1 ‘‘(ii) the name of the person or entity

2 on whose behalf the solicitation is made;

3 and

4 ‘‘(iii) a valid and working telephone

5 number at which the person or entity on

6 whose behalf the telephone solicitation is

7 made may be reached during regular busi8 ness hours for the purpose of requesting

9 that the recipient of the solicitation be

10 placed on the do-not-call list required

11 under section 64.1200 of the Commission’s

12 regulations (47 CFR 64.1200) to be main13 tained by such person or entity; and

14 ‘‘(B) provide that any person or entity who

15 receives a request from a person to be placed on

16 such do-not-call list may not use such person’s

17 name and telephone number for telemarketing,

18 mail marketing, or other marketing purpose

19 (including transfer or sale to any other entity

20 for marketing use) other than enforcement of

21 such list.

22 ‘‘(3) PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION.—A person or

23 entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or

24 rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate

25 court of that State—
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1 ‘‘(A) an action based on a violation of this

2 subsection or the regulations prescribed under

3 this subsection to enjoin such violation;

4 ‘‘(B) an action to recover for actual mone5 tary loss from such a violation, or to receive

6 $500 in damages for each such violation, which7 ever is greater; or

8 ‘‘(C) both such actions.

9 If the court finds that the defendant willfully or

10 knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations

11 prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in

12 its discretion, increase the amount of the award to

13 an amount equal to not more than 3 times the

14 amount available under subparagraph (B) of this

15 paragraph.

16 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub17 section:

18 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.—

19 The term ‘caller identification service’ means

20 any service or device designed to provide the

21 user of the service or device with the telephone

22 number of an incoming telephone call.

23 ‘‘(B) TELEPHONE CALL.—The term ‘tele24 phone call’ means any telephone call or other

25 transmission which is made to or received at a
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1 telephone number of any type of telephone serv2 ice and includes telephone calls made using the

3 Internet (irrespective of the type of customer

4 premises equipment used in connection with

5 such services). Such term also includes calls

6 made by an automatic telephone dialing system,

7 an integrated services digital network, and a

8 commercial mobile radio source.’’.

9 SEC. 3. EFFECT ON STATE LAW AND STATE ACTIONS.

10 (a) EFFECT ON STATE LAW.—Subsection (f)(1) of

11 section 227 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47

12 U.S.C. 227(f)(1)), as so redesignated by section 2(1) of

13 this Act, is further amended by inserting after ‘‘subsection

14 (d)’’ the following: ‘‘and the prohibition under paragraphs

15 (1) and (2) of subsection (e),’’.

16 (b) ACTIONS BY STATES.—The first sentence of sub17 section (g)(1) of section 227 of the Communications Act

18 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(g)(1)), as so redesignated by sec19 tion 2(1) of this Act, is further amended by striking ‘‘tele20 phone calls’’ and inserting ‘‘telephone solicitations, tele21 phone calls, or’’.

22 SEC. 4. STUDY REGARDING TRANSMISSION OF CALLER

23 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.

24 The Federal Communications Commission shall con25 duct a study to determine—
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1 (1) the extent of the capability of the public

2 switched network to transmit the information that

3 can be accessed by caller identification services;

4 (2) the types of telecommunications equipment

5 being used in the telemarketing industry, the extent

6 of such use, and the capabilities of such types of

7 equipment to transmit the information that can be

8 accessed by caller identification services; and

9 (3) the changes to the public switched network

10 and to the types of telecommunications equipment

11 commonly being used in the telemarketing industry

12 that would be necessary to provide for the public

13 switched network to be able to transmit caller identi14 fication information on all telephone calls, and the

15 costs (including costs to the telemarketing industry)

16 to implement such changes.

17 The Commission shall complete the study and submit a

18 report to the Congress on the results of the study, not

19 later than one year after the date of the enactment of this

20 Act.
Union Calendar No. 8

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 90

[Report No. 107–13]

A BILL

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit telemarketers from interfering with the caller identification service of any person to whom a

telephone solicitation is made, and for other purposes.

MARCH 12, 2001

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the

State of the Union and ordered to be printed