II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1540 

To improve the enforcement of prohibitions on robocalls, including fraudulent 

robocalls. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 10, 2015 

Mrs. MCCASKILL (for herself and Ms. COLLINS) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 

Science, and Transportation 

A BILL 

To improve the enforcement of prohibitions on robocalls, 

including fraudulent robocalls. 

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 ‘‘Robocall and Call 

5 Spoofing Enforcement Improvements Act of 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITY RELATING TO NON-LI7 CENSEE ROBOCALLERS. 

8 (a) AUTHORITY TO IMPOSE FORFEITURES WITHOUT

9 FIRST ISSUING CITATIONS.—Section 503(b)(5) of the 


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1 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 503(b)(5)) is 

2 amended in the second sentence— 

3 (1) by striking ‘‘or in the case of’’ and inserting 

4 ‘‘in the case of’’; and 

5 (2) by inserting before the period at the end the 

6 following: ‘‘, or if the person involved is engaging in 

7 violations of section 227(b)(1) of this title’’. 

8 (b) EXPANSION OF STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS.—Sec9 tion 503(b)(6)(B) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

10 U.S.C. 503(b)(6)(B)) is amended— 

11 (1) by striking ‘‘occurred more than 1 year’’ 

12 and inserting the following: ‘‘occurred— 

13 ‘‘(i) except as provided in clause (ii), 

14 more than 1 year’’; 

15 (2) by striking ‘‘liability.’’ and inserting ‘‘liabil16 ity; or’’; and 

17 (3) by inserting after clause (i), as designated, 

18 the following: 

19 ‘‘(ii) in the case of a violation of sec20 tion 227(b)(1) of this title, more than 3 

21 years prior to the date of issuance of the 

22 required notice or notice of apparent liabil23 ity.’’. 


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1 (c) INCREASE IN MAXIMUM FORFEITURE.—Section 

2 503(b)(2) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

3 503(b)(2)) is amended— 

4 (1) in subparagraph (D), by striking ‘‘or (C)’’ 

5 and inserting ‘‘(C), (F), or (G)’’; and 

6 (2) by adding at the end the following: 

7 ‘‘(G) If the violator does not hold, and is not an appli8 cant for, a license, permit, certificate, or other authoriza9 tion issued by the Commission— 

10 ‘‘(i) the amount of any forfeiture penalty deter11 mined under this subsection for a violation of section 

12 227(b)(1) of this title shall not exceed $25,000 for 

13 each violation or each day of a continuing violation; 

14 and 

15 ‘‘(ii) there shall be no limit on the total amount 

16 assessed for any continuing violation of section 

17 227(b)(1) of this title.’’. 

18 SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO TRUTH IN CALLER ID ACT OF 

19 2009. 

20 (a) COMMUNICATIONS FROM OUTSIDE UNITED

21 STATES.—Section 227(e)(1) of the Communications Act 

22 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(1)) is amended by inserting 

23 ‘‘or any person outside the United States if the recipient 

24 is within the United States,’’ after ‘‘United States,’’. 


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1 (b) CLARIFICATION OF DEFINITION OF ‘‘IP-EN2 ABLED VOICE SERVICE’’.—Section 227(e)(8)(C) of the 

3 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)(C)) is 

4 amended by striking ‘‘has the meaning’’ and all that fol5 lows and inserting the following: ‘‘means the provision of 

6 real-time voice communications offered to the public, or 

7 such class of users as to be effectively available to the pub8 lic, transmitted using Internet protocol, or a successor 

9 protocol, (whether part of a bundle of services or sepa10 rately) with interconnection capability such that the serv11 ice can originate traffic to, or terminate traffic from, the 

12 public switched telephone network, or a successor net13 work.’’. 

14 (c) SPOOFING SERVICE.— 

15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(e) of the Com16 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)) is 

17 amended— 

18 (A) by striking paragraph (4); 

19 (B) by redesignating paragraph (3) as 

20 paragraph (4); 

21 (C) by inserting after paragraph (2) the 

22 following: 

23 ‘‘(3) SPOOFING SERVICES.— 

24 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A provider of a spoof25 ing service shall take such steps as the CommisVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:46 Jun 11, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1540.IS S1540

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1 sion may prescribe to verify that a person does 

2 not use the service in violation of this sub3 section. 

4 ‘‘(B) RECORDKEEPING AND REPORTING.— 

5 The Commission shall impose reasonable rec6 ordkeeping and reporting obligations on a pro7 vider of a spoofing service, and shall adopt any 

8 other regulation that the Commission deter9 mines necessary, to prevent or investigate viola10 tions of this subsection. 

11 ‘‘(C) SUBPOENA AUTHORITY.—Notwith12 standing chapter 121 of title 18, United States 

13 Code, for purposes of enforcing this subsection, 

14 the Commission may by subpoena require a 

15 provider of a spoofing service to disclose to the 

16 Commission the caller identification information 

17 transmitted by a subscriber to or customer of 

18 the spoofing service.’’; and 

19 (D) in paragraph (8), by adding at the end 

20 the following: 

21 ‘‘(D) SPOOFING SERVICE.—The term 

22 ‘spoofing service’ means a service that sub23 stitutes, or permits a user to substitute, an24 other name or any number (including a tele25 phone number, pseudo-number, or other numVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:46 Jun 11, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1540.IS S1540

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1 ber) for display as the caller identification in2 formation for a call or text message.’’. 

3 (2) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 

4 227(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 

5 U.S.C. 227(e)(1)), as amended by subsection (a), is 

6 amended by striking ‘‘paragraph (3)(B)’’ and insert7 ing ‘‘paragraph (4)(B)’’. 

8 (d) TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE.—Section 227(e)(8) 

9 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)(8)) 

10 is amended— 

11 (1) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘(includ12 ing a text message sent using a text messaging serv13 ice)’’ before the period at the end; 

14 (2) in the first sentence of subparagraph (B), 

15 by inserting ‘‘(including a text message sent using a 

16 text messaging service)’’ before the period at the 

17 end; and 

18 (3) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘(E) TEXT MESSAGE.—The term ‘text 

20 message’— 

21 ‘‘(i) means a real-time or near real22 time message consisting of text, images, 

23 sounds, or other information that is trans24 mitted from or received by a device that is 


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1 identified as the transmitting or receiving 

2 device by means of a telephone number; 

3 ‘‘(ii) includes a short message service 

4 (commonly referred to as ‘SMS’) message, 

5 an enhanced message service (commonly 

6 referred to as ‘EMS’) message, and a 

7 multimedia message service (commonly re8 ferred to as ‘MMS’) message; and 

9 ‘‘(iii) does not include a real-time, 2- 

10 way voice or video communication. 

11 ‘‘(F) TEXT MESSAGING SERVICE.—The 

12 term ‘text messaging service’ means a service 

13 that permits the transmission or receipt of a 

14 text message, including a service provided as 

15 part of or in connection with a telecommuni16 cations service or an IP-enabled voice service.’’. 

17 (e) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Section 227(e) of the Com18 munications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227(e)) is amended 

19 by adding at the end the following: 

20 ‘‘(10) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this sub21 section shall be construed to— 

22 ‘‘(A) modify or limit the authority of the 

23 Commission under the Telephone Consumer 

24 Protection Act of 1991 (Public Law 102–243; 

25 105 Stat. 2394), the amendments made by that 


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1 Act, or the CAN–SPAM Act of 2003 (15 

2 U.S.C. 7701 et seq.), as of the day before the 

3 date of enactment of the Robocall and Call 

4 Spoofing Enforcement Improvements Act of 

5 2015, to interpret the term ‘call’ to include a 

6 text message; or 

7 ‘‘(B) modify, limit, or otherwise affect any 

8 rule or order adopted by the Commission in 

9 connection with the Telephone Consumer Pro10 tection Act of 1991, the amendments made by 

11 that Act, or the CAN–SPAM Act of 2003.’’. 

12 (f) REGULATIONS.— 

13 (1) IN GENERAL.—Section 227(e)(4)(A) of the 

14 Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

15 227(e)(4)(A)), as redesignated by subsection (c), is 

16 amended by striking ‘‘Not later than 6 months after 

17 the date of enactment of the Truth in Caller ID Act 

18 of 2009, the Commission’’ and inserting ‘‘The Com19 mission’’. 

20 (2) DEADLINE.—Not later than 18 months 

21 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Federal 

22 Communications Commission shall prescribe regula23 tions to implement the amendments made by this 

24 section. 


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1 (g) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

2 this section shall take effect on the date that is 6 months 

3 after the date on which the Federal Communications Com4 mission prescribes regulations to implement the amend5 ments made by this section. 

6 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 

7 It is the sense of Congress that— 

8 (1) telecommunications carriers have the legal 

9 authority to offer consumers services that block or 

10 filter robocalls; and 

11 (2) the Federal Government, including the Fed12 eral Communications Commission and the Federal 

13 Trade Commission, should encourage telecommuni14 cations carriers to develop and implement the serv15 ices described in paragraph (1). 

Æ 


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