I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5126 

To amend the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit manipulation of 

caller identification information, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 6, 2006 

Mr. BARTON of Texas (for himself, Mr. ENGEL, Mr. SIMMONS, and Mr. 

REICHERT) 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 2006’’. 

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 INACCURATE

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, unless such transmission is exempted pursu13 ant to paragraph (3)(B). 

14 ‘‘(2) PROTECTION FOR BLOCKING CALLER

15 IDENTIFICATION INFORMATION.—Nothing in this 

16 subsection may be construed to prevent or restrict 

17 any person from blocking the capability of any caller 

18 identification service to transmit caller identification 

19 information. 

20 ‘‘(3) REGULATIONS.— 

21 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 

22 months after the enactment of this subsection, 

23 the Commission shall prescribe regulations to 

24 implement this subsection. 


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1 ‘‘(B) EXEMPTION.—The regulations under 

2 this paragraph shall exempt from the prohibi3 tion under paragraph (1) transmissions in con4 nection with authorized activities of law en5 forcement agencies. 

6 ‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this sub7 section: 

8 ‘‘(A) CALLER IDENTIFICATION INFORMA9 TION.—The term ‘caller identification informa10 tion’ means information provided by a caller 

11 identification service regarding the telephone 

12 number of, or other information regarding the 

13 origination of, a call made using a telecommuni14 cations service or VOIP service. 

15 ‘‘(B) CALLER IDENTIFICATION SERVICE.— 

16 The term ‘caller identification service’ means 

17 any service or device designed to provide the 

18 user of the service or device with the telephone 

19 number of, or other information regarding the 

20 origination of, a call made using a telecommuni21 cations service or VOIP service. Such term in22 cludes automatic number identification services. 

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

24 service’ means a service that— 


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1 ‘‘(i) provides real-time 2-way voice 

2 communications transmitted through cus3 tomer premises equipment using TCP/IP 

4 protocol, or a successor protocol (including 

5 when the voice communication is converted 

6 to or from TCP/IP protocol by the VOIP 

7 service provider and transmitted to the 

8 subscriber without use of circuit switch9 ing), for a fee; 

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

11 classes of users as to be effectively avail12 able to the public (whether part of a bun13 dle of services or separately); and 

14 ‘‘(iii) has the capability to originate 

15 traffic to, and terminate traffic from, the 

16 public switched telephone network. 

17 ‘‘(5) LIMITATION.—Notwithstanding any other 

18 provision of this section, subsection (f) shall not 

19 apply to this subsection or to the regulations under 

20 this subsection.’’. 

Æ 


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