I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 3434 

To require the Federal Communications Commission to publish an annual 

report on suspected unlawful robocalls, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 24, 2019 

Mr. BUTTERFIELD (for himself, Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio, Mr. SOTO, and Mr. 

GIANFORTE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

A BILL 

To require the Federal Communications Commission to publish an annual report on suspected unlawful robocalls, 

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 ‘‘Tracing Back and 

5 Catching Unlawful Robocallers Act of 2019’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ANNUAL ROBOCALL REPORT. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

8 date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, 

9 the Commission shall make publicly available on the 


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1 website of the Commission, and submit to the Committee 

2 on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives 

3 and the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transpor4 tation of the Senate, a report on the status of private5 led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful 

6 robocalls by the registered consortium and the participa7 tion of voice service providers in such efforts. 

8 (b) CONTENTS OF REPORT.—The report required 

9 under subsection (a) shall include, at minimum, the fol10 lowing: 

11 (1) A description of private-led efforts to trace 

12 back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls by 

13 the registered consortium and the actions taken by 

14 the registered consortium to coordinate with the 

15 Commission. 

16 (2) A list of voice service providers identified by 

17 the registered consortium that participated in pri18 vate-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected 

19 unlawful robocalls through the registered consor20 tium. 

21 (3) A list of each voice service provider that re22 ceived a request from the registered consortium to 

23 participate in private-led efforts to trace back the or24 igin of suspected unlawful robocalls and refused to 


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1 participate, as identified by the registered consor2 tium. 

3 (4) The reason, if any, each voice service pro4 vider identified by the registered consortium pro5 vided for not participating in private-led efforts to 

6 trace back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls. 

7 (5) A description of how the Commission may 

8 use the information provided to the Commission by 

9 voice service providers or the registered consortium 

10 that have participated in private-led efforts to trace 

11 back the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls in 

12 the enforcement efforts by the Commission. 

13 (c) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.—Not later than 210 

14 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and annu15 ally thereafter, the Commission shall issue a notice to the 

16 public seeking additional information from voice service 

17 providers and the registered consortium of private-led ef18 forts to trace back the origin of suspected unlawful 

19 robocalls necessary for the report by the Commission re20 quired under subsection (a). 

21 (d) REGISTRATION OF CONSORTIUM OF PRIVATE22 LED EFFORTS TO TRACE BACK THE ORIGIN OF SUS23 PECTED UNLAWFUL ROBOCALLS.— 

24 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 

25 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission 


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1 shall issue rules to establish a registration process 

2 for the registration of a single consortium that con3 ducts private-led efforts to trace back the origin of 

4 suspected unlawful robocalls. The consortium shall 

5 meet the following requirements: 

6 (A) Be a neutral third-party competent to 

7 manage the private-led effort to trace back the 

8 origin of suspected unlawful robocalls in the 

9 judgement of the Commission. 

10 (B) Maintain a set of written best prac11 tices about the management of such efforts and 

12 regarding providers of voice services’ participa13 tion in private-led efforts to trace back the ori14 gin of suspected unlawful robocalls. 

15 (C) Consistent with section 222(d)(2) of 

16 the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 

17 222(d)(2)), any private-led efforts to trace back 

18 the origin of suspected unlawful robocalls con19 ducted by the third-party focus on ‘‘fraudulent, 

20 abusive, or unlawful’’ traffic. 

21 (D) File a notice with the Commission that 

22 the consortium intends to conduct private-led 

23 efforts to trace back in advance of such reg24 istration. 


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1 (2) ANNUAL NOTICE BY THE COMMISSION

2 SEEKING REGISTRATIONS.—Not later than 120 days 

3 after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually 

4 thereafter, the Commission shall issue a notice to 

5 the public seeking the registration described in para6 graph (1). 

7 (e) LIST OF VOICE SERVICE PROVIDERS.—The Com8 mission may publish a list of voice service providers from 

9 which other voice service providers may refuse to accept 

10 calls, based on information obtained from the consortium 

11 about voice service providers that refuse to participate in 

12 private-led efforts to trace back the origin of suspected 

13 unlawful robocalls, and other information the Commission 

14 may collect about service providers that are found to origi15 nate or transmit substantial amounts of illegal calls. 

16 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

17 (1) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 

18 means the Federal Communications Commission. 

19 (2) PRIVATE-LED EFFORT TO TRACE BACK.— 

20 The term ‘‘private-led effort to trace back’’ means 

21 an effort made by the registered consortium of voice 

22 service providers to establish a methodology for de23 termining the origin of a suspected unlawful 

24 robocall. 


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1 (3) REGISTERED CONSORTIUM.—The term 

2 ‘‘registered consortium’’ means the consortium reg3 istered under subsection (d). 

4 (4) SUSPECTED UNLAWFUL ROBOCALL.—The 

5 term ‘‘suspected unlawful robocall’’ means a call 

6 that the Commission or a voice service provider rea7 sonably believes was made in violation of subsection 

8 (b) or (e) of section 227 of the Communications Act 

9 of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 227). 

10 (5) VOICE SERVICE.—The term ‘‘voice serv11 ice’’— 

12 (A) means any service that is inter13 connected with the public switched telephone 

14 network and that furnishes voice communica15 tions to an end user using resources from the 

16 North American Numbering Plan or any suc17 cessor to the North American Numbering Plan 

18 adopted by the Commission under section 

19 251(e)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934 

20 (47 U.S.C. 251(e)(1)); and 

21 (B) includes— 

22 (i) transmissions from a telephone 

23 facsimile machine, computer, or other de24 vice to a telephone facsimile machine; and 


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1 (ii) without limitation, any service 

2 that enables real-time, two-way voice com3 munications, including any service that re4 quires internet protocol-compatible cus5 tomer premises equipment (commonly 

6 known as ‘‘CPE’’) and permits out-bound 

7 calling, whether or not the service is one8 way or two-way voice over internet pro9 tocol. 

Æ 


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